Workgroup participants at the DFMCH’s Vision Conference.

Workgroup participants at the DFMCH’s Vision Conference. Photo slideshow »

On September 17, 2015, the UW Department of Family Medicine and Community Health (DFMCH) held a Vision Conference to map out concrete plans for carrying out its mission and vision.

The engaging event brought together 73 DFMCH faculty and staff from 17 locations (view list of attendees). Together, they developed targeted vision statements for each of the department’s mission areas: education (medical student/interprofessional and residency), research and patient care.

These vision statements reaffirmed the DFMCH’s mission and vision, and also set the course for strategic action over the next three years and beyond.

Photo Slideshow

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Glimpses of the Future

Here are some examples of what came out of the conference:

  • The medical student/interprofessional team will create learning models that emphasize team-based primary care, community engagement and population health. (Full summary)
  • The resident education team set a goal of increasing residency education programs by 50 percent over the next decade to meet Wisconsin’s primary care workforce needs. (Full summary)
  • The research team intends to focus its efforts on collaborative, practice-based research across DFMCH sites. (Full summary)
  • The patient care team aims to improve patient access, community engagement, staff and patient satisfaction and quality metrics—goals that will be further refined in the context of UW Health’s strategic plan. (Full summary)

What attendees said about the Vision Conference:

“Excellent group of people. Made me think deeply about how many wonderful people we have in the department.”

“Your efforts have paid off but the best is yet to come.”

Full event summary on Inside DFMCH

‘The Best is Yet to Come’

Overall, participants agreed that the event was engaging, relevant and meaningful. Here are just a few of the comments they shared:

  • “Excellent group of people. Made me think deeply about how many wonderful people we have in the department.”
  • “Loved hearing from people I don’t usually work with about the area I work in. Loved the other perspectives and fresh ideas so much!”
  • “I feel optimistic that our ideas may actually be implemented.”
  • “So much learning [and] relationship building. Rapid fire/concrete exercises may not have been tidy and pretty but certainly were productive.”
  • “You have your work cut out for you, but you can’t stop now! Your efforts have paid off but the best is yet to come. Keep sprinting.”

Read the full evaluation

Next Steps and How to Learn More

This fall and winter, each task force team will develop proposals for implementing the goals outlined at the Vision Conference. Those proposals will go to the DFMCH ReCHARGED Steering Group for evaluation and refinement, and then on to DFMCH leadership in the spring of 2016.

Want to find out more? Here’s how:

Published: October 2015