Supporting the growth of our clinical practice

Dear CUIMC community,

The patient care provided by ColumbiaDoctors, our faculty practice organization, is essential to the medical center’s dynamism and our impact in the world. ColumbiaDoctors was formed 17 years ago (under a different name) to support our clinicians by developing shared administrative functions, including billing and malpractice.

Subsequently, ColumbiaDoctors has expanded and flourished. Over the last decade, it has overseen the opening of a new multispecialty practice on 51st Street; established a centralized revenue cycle; provided patient access services through call centers; implemented a single, standardized electronic record system (Epic); created an ambulatory quality and safety infrastructure; and supported the rapid growth of telemedicine. ColumbiaDoctors today employs more than 2,500 physicians, surgeons, dentists, and advanced practice professionals across 230 medical specialties and subspecialties. From 2010 to 2022, the number of annual patient visits doubled to 1.6 million, and we are clearly on a trajectory of continued growth and geographic expansion.

Earlier this year, the leadership of ColumbiaDoctors initiated a process to examine whether the resources and expertise supporting the faculty practice are properly aligned to accommodate this growth and our clinicians’ and patients’ future needs. Led by a committee of clinical department chairs and engaging multiple stakeholders across CUIMC, this effort was informed by the work of an outside consulting firm, The Chartis Group, and involved comparisons with the faculty practice organizations of peer institutions. Today I want to share several recommendations emerging from this review that we will be implementing.

Going forward, ColumbiaDoctors will be led by a Board of Governance made up of our 18 clinical chairs, a senior executive of NewYork-Presbyterian, and me. Dedicated operating committees, each led by the chair of a clinical department, will make recommendations to the Board and will be accountable to an executive committee. We also will be forming a Clinical Advisory Board, whose peer-selected members drawn from each clinical department will be relied upon to surface issues and to convey the emerging needs of our clinicians and patients.

Perhaps most significantly, we are creating a new, full-time clinical leadership position: CEO of ColumbiaDoctors and Senior Vice Dean of Clinical Affairs (SVD). This individual will oversee the operations of ColumbiaDoctors, play a key role in our alignment with NewYork-Presbyterian, and take responsibility for clinical strategic planning in conjunction with departmental and divisional clinical leadership. More information will come next week about the search being conducted to fill this position and the process for applying.

Every day, through patient care ranging from the routine to the miraculous, our clinicians change people’s lives for the better and inspire us with their dedication and skill. I can think of no better expression of our gratitude than to redouble our efforts to support them. The governance changes announced here reflect an ongoing commitment to strive for improvement and to maintain the highest standards of excellence.

All my best,

Katrina Armstrong, MD
Chief Executive Officer, Columbia University Irving Medical Center
Dean of the Faculties of Health Sciences and the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons