One RBHS: Strategic Goals

Grow and support an exceptional, compassionate, and diverse workforce

Our people are at the heart of a successful One RBHS. The objectives of this goal are focused on developing, supporting, and promoting our workforce, including our students and trainees who represent our future. The growth and evolution of the RBHS community is centered on a commitment to principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and RBHS core values. 

U1 Objectives:

1. Recruit, promote, and retain highly qualified and compassionate faculty, staff, students, trainees, and leaders from diverse backgrounds and experiences.
2. Support the recruitment, inclusion, and retention of diverse faculty, staff, students, trainees, and leaders.
3. Enhance professional development, advancement, and recognition by providing support and mentorship for growth opportunities for faculty, staff, students, and trainees at all levels.

U1 Specific Initiatives U1 Year 1 Accomplishments

Foster a culture of respect that prioritizes inclusion and accountability

This unifying theme focuses on developing the ideal RBHS workplace that fosters a positive environment to nurture, empower, and support the RBHS community to achieve excellence. The objectives of this goal aim to recognize and celebrate our different qualities and experiences, and promote a climate of inclusion, respect, and belonging for all in the spirit of forming a ‘beloved community.’ Additionally, personal, leadership, and institutional collective accountability are paramount to successfully achieving this goal.

U2 Objectives:

1. Promote a culture of respect and belonging that recognizes and values multiple points of view irrespective of a person’s role, professional field, or background.
2. Enhance individual and collective accountability for creating a respectful and inclusive environment throughout RBHS.
3. Foster behaviors, practices, and approaches that consider personal and professional morale and well-being.

U2 Specific Initiatives U2 Year 1 Accomplishments

Emphasize team-based and collaborative approaches across all mission areas

A unique aspect of RBHS is its comprehensive constellation of health professions schools (dentistry, health professions, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and public health) and affiliations with the major statewide health system—RWJBarnabas Health, the state’s only public tertiary care hospital—University Hospital, and the VA New Jersey Health Care System. These affiliations afford significant opportunities for RBHS to contribute, excel, and lead in team-based and collaborative approaches to interprofessional education, clinical care, research, and community engagement.

U3 Objectives:

1. Establish RBHS as a research and innovation center that leverages its strengths to promote team-based, interprofessional education, research, and clinical care to holistically address the health needs of the populations and communities we serve.  
2. Collaborate to share resources and create opportunities by fostering community and interprofessional participation among RBHS units across Rutgers University and beyond.
3. Enhance bidirectional integration of basic, clinical, translational, and population-based research efforts to build and synergize impactful team collaborations.
4. Advocate within the institution, and at the state and national levels, for policy and regulatory changes that promote and strengthen team-based, interprofessional practice.

U3 Specific Initiatives U3 Year 1 Accomplishments

Increase the effectiveness of enabling systems, structures, and processes

There are several enabling systems and administrative structures that need to be enhanced for RBHS to fulfill its mission and succeed in implementing its strategic goals. The following objectives focus on infrastructure needs and administrative functions, ensuring efficient systems, structures, and processes, and improving knowledge and information management. 

U4 Objectives:

1. Assess and identify high-impact opportunities to improve operational and financial processes, technology, and support systems. 
2. Identify and consolidate isolated, underutilized, or duplicative units, space, or services so that the sum is greater than the individual parts. 
3. Improve knowledge and information management practices across RBHS to enhance strategic decision-making and implementation, improve organizational effectiveness, and drive institutional success.

U4 Specific Initiatives U4 Year 1 Accomplishments

Develop and promote a shared One RBHS identity

RBHS and Rutgers Health are relatively new branded entities, including our clinical affiliations with RWJBarnabas Health and University Hospital. This presents an opportunity for RBHS to address identity challenges, grow reputation, and promote philanthropic collaborations and gifts. The adoption of a singular, unique identity to unite the Rutgers health affairs mission is critical to the long-term success of the institution as we build New Jersey’s premier academic health center into a nationally renowned system. 

U5 Objectives:

1. Elevate the university’s reputation by creating a unified brand for RBHS and Rutgers Health that will be adopted across the university’s clinical, education, research, and service missions.
2. Enhance communication and collaboration among and between RBHS, the other chancellor-led units, and the university leadership via cross-unit planning.
3. Promote the philanthropic culture of giving within RBHS.

U5 Specific Initiatives U5 Year 1 Accomplishments

Actualize interprofessional synergies to optimize clinical care and the patient experience

RBHS represents New Jersey’s only comprehensive academic health care sys-tem, and includes world-class faculty, staff, students, and other trainees across the full spectrum of educational and training opportunities, research, and health care delivery. The objective of this goal is to leverage the comprehensive and unique aspects of RBHS and Rutgers University, coupled with the unique affiliations with RWJBarnabas Health, University Hospital, and the VA New Jersey Health Care System to lead by improving the health of our communities through the delivery of the highest quality of, and access to, integrated and interprofessional clinical care and preventive health.

M1 Objectives:

1. Build an integrated, collaborative, patient-centered workforce and interprofessional care environment that leverages the expertise and breadth of our health care faculty, students and trainees, and support teams.
2. Embrace and utilize existing and new technologies to facilitate team-based, patient-centered care.
3. Work with our strategic health care affiliates to foster and further develop service lines and clinical centers of excellence and align our joint strategic goals.
4. Identify tactics to remove barriers and optimize access and coordination of care.
5. Accelerate the transition from fee-for–service to value-based health care delivery.

M1 Specific Initiatives M1 Year 1 Accomplishments

Educate, train, and prepare a diverse New Jersey biomedical and health sciences workforce

The objectives of this goal focus on fostering excellence in the delivery of health professions and biomedical sciences education by leveraging the strengths of our interprofessional community of educators across RBHS to recruit, train, support, and prepare a diverse and highly competitive New Jersey biomedical and health sciences workforce. The objectives also highlight the need to enhance the RBHS-wide teaching and learning infrastructure and elevate the recognition of educators and educational administration.

M2 Objectives:

1. Establish a process to provide support for the schools in developing programming to prepare a diverse and interprofessional 21st century health care workforce.
2. Identify ways to recognize, measure and reward excellence in teaching and educational program administration, including the criteria utilized in reappointment, promotion, and tenure review.
3. Engage, recognize, and retain Rutgers University, RWJBarnabas Health, and University Hospital practitioners as critical clinical preceptors and educators.

M2 Specific Initiatives M2 Year 1 Accomplishments

Build on RBHS strengths and opportunities to excel in discovery and innovation

The objectives of this goal focus on building on the existing strengths of established and emerging strategic research areas, identifying and cultivating new areas of impactful and innovative research, and growing our research portfolio and presence to be leaders among our peer institutions. An important RBHS advantage is its affiliations with RWJBarnabas Health, University Hospital, and the VA New Jersey Health Care System, which provide access to patients for translational and clinical research, and proximity to New Jersey’s extensive bio-technolog y and pharmaceutical companies. A robust RBHS research enterprise will improve health in New Jersey, address health-related social inequities, and provide an engine for discovery, innovation, and economic development. 

M3 Objectives:

1. Cultivate and grow research and innovation in targeted focus areas that have regional, national, and global impact.
2. Support and grow mutually beneficial research affiliations and scholarly activities that promote health equity, and individual, community, and population health.
3. Amplify and expand team science and collaborative research.
4. Create, support, and evaluate centralized core facilities and research support services and structures that reduce administrative burdens.
5. Enhance mechanisms for promoting technology transfer and supporting investigator-initiated research and innovation.

M3 Specific Initiatives M3 Year 1 Accomplishments

Engage meaningfully with local and global communities

The objectives of this goal are meant to ensure that, as a public institution, we are engaged with our local and global communities to advance research, education, and clinical care through service that addresses relevant community health challenges and needs. By engaging with these communities in ongoing collaborations, we can work together to improve and sustain health. Another important aspect of community engagement is to expose students and trainees to learning opportunities that expand consciousness of their impact on the communities they serve and increase awareness of the cultural and societal factors that affect health.

M4 Objectives:

1. Coordinate community engagement efforts to address health issues of mutual concern and ensure effective leveraging of community and university resources.
2. Coordinate community engagement activities across RBHS and with all Rutgers chancellor-led units, the New Jersey Department of Health, and other state community services.
3. Provide faculty, staff, students, and trainees with opportunities to learn about community engagement to positively impact community and population health.

M4 Specific Initiatives M4 Year 1 Accomplishments