NYUSOM/Bellevue Agreement

We are pleased to announce that agreement has been reached on a new 3-year contract between the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation ( Bellevue Hospital and Gouverneur Diagnostic and Treatment Center) and the NYU School of Medicine.  The new agreement improves the alignment between our institutions and builds on the longstanding commitment to quality, patient service, teaching and research. The contract takes effect on July 1, 2005.  It calls for approximately a 4.5% increase in total compensation on the Bellevue portion of the contract.  This will continue to be a productivity- based contract in most areas, where in-patient discharges and outpatient visits are monitored. Changes agreed to in the productivity methodology should produce real-time data and facilitate department specific productivity and financial feedback.  There is also a modest escalation in compensation built into years 2 and 3 of the contract. 

The Joint Operating Committee will continue to meet every Monday and will be the place where all personnel requests are submitted.  Additionally, this committee will review data on a regular basis so that departments can be readily informed about their progress. The agreement includes a series of performance improvement initiatives that have significant financial ramifications.  The Health and Hospitals Corporation will withhold $650,000 of the contract based on NYU successfully completing a series of performance initiatives that are related to length-of-stay, completion of operative reports, completion of medical records, and closure of outpatient visits, practices which should be done in the normal course of events.  Additionally, NYU will be eligible for up to a $350,000 in incentive payments for achieving excellence in issues related to smoking, diabetes, colonoscopy and depression screening along with in-patient guidelines in a number of medical DRGs. 

Presentations on the agreement will be made at the next Bellevue Chief’s meeting and other forums. Individual departments will be briefed over the next few weeks.