PBN Business Excellence Awards 2020
Excellence at a Nonprofit – Large Company: Brown Medicine
COLLEGIALITY AMONG PHYSICIANS, staff and leadership rarely surpassed by other health care organizations is growing Brown Medicine into one of Rhode Island’s largest nonprofit, academic multispecialty medical groups.
This sense of team helps flatten organizational structure to include all employees in its success.
“We do have the leadership physicians, the all-physician board that makes decisions for Brown Medicine,” said Tammy Lederer, chief human resources officer for Brown Physicians Inc., comprising six foundations, including Brown Medicine. “We’re ‘flat’ because we listen to our employees and any feedback they provide us.”
Affiliated with Brown University’s Warren Alpert Medical School, Brown Medicine has a tripartite mission to care for patients, research and innovate medical advances, and teach the next generation of doctors.
“That’s what distinguishes us,” Brown Medicine CEO Ann M. Kashmanian said. “All of our doctors are either clinicians and teachers, or clinicians and researchers. And in some cases, they’re all three.”
Over the past five years, the number of staff doctors has grown by 5%, to 200 – almost half of Brown Medicine’s 440 employees. The number of other employees has grown by 13% as Brown Medicine has identified needs and added services.
Two strategic initiatives were building and launching new patient and endoscopy centers in East Providence. Brown Medicine plans to open another patient center in late spring in Smithfield.
The new center will be like the “medical home” at 375 Wampanoag Trail in East Providence, where patients can access physical therapy, lab and X-ray services, and various Brown Medicine specialties. Among them are endocrinology, gastroenterology, kidney and hypertension, and infectious disease.
The new patient center at 900 Douglas Pike will integrate dermatology, neurology, urology and surgical services from Brown’s sister foundations with Brown Medicine’s specialties. With this type of patient-centric innovation, the nonprofit’s total revenue has increased by 12% from $77.7 million in the 2015 fiscal year to $87 million in 2019.
“Strategically, our physicians look at services that benefit the community, and they look at programs they could expand on,” Kashmanian said. “Our goal is to always stay ahead of the curve in offering patients the highest level of care and continually strengthen our position in the health care market.”
In addition to unrivaled patient care, the medical group’s culture promotes learning and advancing medical knowledge through research. This year, COVID-19 became the latest infectious disease to be analyzed as doctors pursue a cure. Brown Medicine is conducting clinical trials with hopes its efforts will benefit globally.
“They’ve been very involved in this whole COVID-19 crisis, working with colleagues across the country and world who are working on a vaccine,” Kashmanian said.
Brown Medicine researchers weren’t the only ones prepared when COVID-19 hit Rhode Island.
Medical-group leaders began discussing the scourge and considering “what-ifs” before the outbreak reached U.S. soil. Hospital-based division directors planned with Lifespan Corp. heads for inpatient-volume increases in the hospital network, including Rhode Island, Newport and The Miriam hospitals. Brown’s outpatient practices prepared to continue patient care with telemedicine.
Communication was essential. Daily calls with division directors at 7:30 a.m. and senior leaders at 4:30 p.m. and weekly Webex calls hosted by Brown Medicine President Dr. Louis Rice were held to help educate all employees with the latest information to manage their COVID-19 response.
As steeped as the culture is in learning and teaching, Brown Medicine’s third prong to success – education – goes beyond training the next generation of doctors.
It involves looking within to invest in employees to lead, innovate and engage in these ways:
n Brown’s Licensed Practical Nurse apprenticeship, developed with Apprenticeship Rhode Island and Community College of Rhode Island, creates pathways to professional growth for the group’s medical assistants and medical secretaries. It is the only program of its kind in the nation.
n Its generous tuition-reimbursement policy provides $2,000 a year to each employee studying at an accredited college as long as he or she works at Brown Medicine.
n Brown Physicians Inc. Leader Academy pulls together about 30 people from a cross-section of Brown Medicine for training in leadership and collaboration through special group projects.
“We have learned and continue to believe any form of education or learning provides us with smarter, well-rounded, motivated employees,” Lederer said.
