DCA was retained to provide a system-wide Academic Medicine Assessment and 5-year Strategic Direction/Plan for Resurrection Health Care Graduate and Undergraduate Medical Education. The plan called for sweeping changes in the governance, leadership, and infrastructure of the program. Rebalancing of the GME program portfolio and instituting a faculty practice model that supports the training of residents in new care delivery models was needed while ensuring fiscally sound care continuum principles. Subsequently, DCA was engaged to conduct a National Executive Search for a Chief Academic Officer and to work with the RHC Foundation in defining and establishing a RHC Grants Management Department. DCA's work provided a platform from which to grow Medical Education through the merger with Provena Health. During the year, the DCA Team interacted with all levels of the organization, facilitated physician and management meetings on multiple campuses, and provided professionally relevant content and analytics leading to an Academic Medicine 'homerun' for Resurrection Health Care.

- David DiLoreto, MD, Executive Vice-President and Chief Innovation Officer, Resurrection Health Care/Provena Health

DCA was engaged by the Henry Ford Health System to work on an assessment and analysis of our community hospital Graduate and Undergraduate Medical Education Programs. Over a two-year time period, they worked directly with corporate executive management and key hospital administrators to clarify and illuminate a series of complex relationships, agreements, and accreditation and reimbursement opportunities that underlay this issue. DCA’s expert knowledge and national experience helped further educate management on both Undergraduate and Graduate Medical Education, provided the foundation for an enterprise-wide medical education strategy, generated a five-year plan for approval by corporate executive management, and enabled facilitation of five physician/employee cross-institution Work Teams to implement the plan at the System community hospitals. DCA’s project management capability, coupled with their skills at facilitation and communication, in-depth analytics, and iterative style enabled them to provide exceptional data, well-thought out essential points presented in both local and national contexts, and created actionable interim and final presentations to the corporate executive team.

- Robert G. Riney, President/Chief Operating Officer, Henry Ford Health System

During the course of their two years working with corporate executive management, our flagship academic medical center (Baylor University Medical Center), and the System community hospitals, DCA was able bring physicians and management together to decide upon an enterprise-wide research and medical education strategy, present a plan to the Board for approval, and facilitate the efforts of five physician Work Teams to implement the plan. DCA also brought about process and operational improvement and clinical and leadership change in two of our Emergency Departments. DCA helped strengthen our community hospital-based Family Medicine Residency Program. Their project management capability, skills at facilitation and communication, and in-depth analytics, as well as their relevant and actionable interim and final reports/presentations to the executive team and the Board were valuable to our overall strategic planning process.

- Gary D. Brock, Chief Operating Officer, Baylor Health Care System

Since 2004, Texas Health Resources has sought DCA’s experience to assist with the Academic Medicine environment and strategy, an integral part of our 10-Year Strategic Focus. Their work has helped us develop Research and GME strategic plans which we are now executing. At Texas Health Resources, we value DCA’s expertise and experience.

- Douglas D. Hawthorne, FACHE, Chief Executive Officer, Texas Health Resources

DCA provided excellent, invaluable expertise and were most responsive and sensitive to our needs. The DCA team has an excellent understanding of community teaching hospitals, academic medical centers and the university/medical school environment. Their team provided us a five-year strategic plan which was extremely well thought out; delivering us a pathway that our Board could agree upon with minimal debate or concern.

- Mark S. McPhee, MD, MHCM, (Former)SVP and Chief Operating Officer, Saint Luke’s Hospital of Kansas City, Saint Luke’s Health System, (Current) Chief Operating Officer Cleveland Clinic/Abu Dhabi

DCA is an extremely professional firm, their work reflects current business and health care trends and solutions, they are responsive, strategic thinkers and their work is individualized to each client's challenges and opportunities. DCA establishes long term relationships and partnerships with clients and delights in the successes of each client.

- Judith C. Waterston, President, Spaulding Rehabilitation, Hospital Network, Partners HealthCare System, Inc.

DCA was able to bring together the medical staff leadership and the health care system senior administration and develop a five-year enterprise-wide strategy for research. This resulted in a focus on clinically relevant research that would translate into supporting our major clinical programs. The Institute has developed into one of the most successful research programs in the country.

- Michael A. E. Ramsay, MD, President, Baylor Research Institute, Baylor Health Care System

Throughout multiple system-wide engagements, DCA listened to us, gave us thoughtful guidance, and delivered superb analyses resulting in an excellent strategic plan and implementable transition plan to move us forward.

- Mark Montoney, MD, (Former) System Vice President and Chief Medical Officer, OhioHealth, (Current) SVP/CMO Vanguard Health

DCA was able to bring together the research management and scientific leadership to create a financially successful five-year strategic plan for Research. They were able to realign our programs and resources to focus on a clinically relevant agenda for our physicians and patients and position the organization to attract federal and state funding. Our Research Foundation’s success and continued expansion has enhanced our brand and our national name recognition.

- Douglas J. Reading, MD, Chairman, Board of Directors, Marshfield Medical Research & Education Foundation, Marshfield Clinic

DCA proved to be knowledgeable and creative in their approach to helping us identify strategies for future direction. Their in-depth knowledge of academic medical centers proved to be invaluable. They are reliable, principled, and a pleasure to work with.

- Paul A. Mullings, FACHE, Senior Associate Director and Chief Operating Officer, Howard University Hospital

During the two years that DCA was engaged, their assessment of existing service lines brought strategic issues to the forefront. They demonstrated an expertise in developing wide involvement between the medical staff and hospital and corporate administrations. DCA sought team solutions and provided the background information and processes by which this development could evolve. DCA is an approachable, conscientious, strategic thinking group that generates avenues for change with forward-looking health care organizations. Their areas of involvement included Undergraduate and Graduate Medical Education; the development of Centers of Excellence, especially in oncology, heart and vascular disease, orthopedics and joint replacement, mental health and memory disorders, the neurosciences, rehabilitation medicine, transplantation and research.

- Alan Leibowitz, MD, Chief Academic Officer, Banner Health System

During the peak time period for submitting applications to NIH in response to the opportunity provided by funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act 2009 (ARRA, aka, Stimulus Package) DCA provided excellent and invaluable expertise in assisting us in identifying, evaluating, and responding to the new Funding Opportunities. The DCA team has an excellent understanding of research-oriented hospitals and academic medical centers, their investigators, and the prestige and value being awarded an NIH grant brings to a research institution. Their team provided project management for twelve NIH grant applications within a six-month time period, bringing together internal grant writers, principal investigators, architects, facilities management, and administrative personnel and combining the data and information available on a system-wide basis into strong and technically complete applications in order to meet each and every NIH deadline. The applications would not have been completed without their expertise and commitment.

- Shlomo Melmed, MD, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Senior Vice President, Academic Affairs, Dean of the Medical Faculty, Director, Burns and Allen Research Institute

DCA was engaged by the Iowa Health System to assess our current GME portfolio of GME programs across our seven affiliates and to assist us in developing strategic options. They exceeded expectations in their degree of thoroughness. No rock was left unturned and we learned a lot about our current structure, capabilities, and programmatic quality. Their data reports and analysis were very insightful. The final product left us with clear direction in addition to contingencies for those moving external environmental forces. As individuals, they are very pleasant, diligent, and enthusiastic about their work.

- Alan S. Kaplan MD, Vice President/Chief Medical Officer, Iowa Health System; President, Iowa Health Physicians

DCA did a great job of helping us develop a plan for expansion of our Graduate Medical Education activities. DCA staff were very professional, organized, and thorough. Their knowledge and expertise helped give us confidence to move forward with our plans. They provided us with a sense of urgency to progress more rapidly than we would have otherwise.

- H. Clifton Knight, MD, Chief Medical and Academic Officer, Community Health Network

We requested DCA's assistance in evaluating our existing research activities and laying out the initial steps of a five-year plan for developing a robust research enterprise. The DCA Team conducted an exhaustive asssessment of our existing research activity, of the structure and resources supporting research at MeritCare, of our research partnerships and of the most fertile areas in which to grow future research endeavors. The depth of their experience was readily apparent to our executive team. their ability to appreciate both the virtues and the drawbacks of MeritCare's research program served to educate staff as they interviewed them. I was impressed and gratified by their skill and frankness with which they formulated their judgements and offered their recommendations. they left no stones unturned and pulled no punches. In the end, they delivered a set of recommendations that all of us could agree were reasoned, informed and doable. Surprisingly, MeritCare merged with Sanford Health during the course of the engagement. Their work offered the unexpected benefit of helping us navigate and negotiate the merger of the MeritCare and Sanford research programs during the ensuing months.

- Bruce G. Pitts, MD, FACP, MBA, Executive Vice President, MeritCare Health System; President, MeritCare Health System Physicians