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Growth and renewal
2004 has been a historic year for the NIH Clinical Center. Two landmark
achievements will greatly improve our ability to support state-of-the-art clinical
research: the completion and dedication of our new research hospital, the
Mark O. Hatfield Clinical Research Center, and the launching of our new electronic
medical and clinical research information system, CRIS. Both are described more
fully in the following pages, along with other important achievements. Years of
planning, development, and training went into both projects, and the workload
increased dramatically throughout the Clinical Center, involving and affecting every
employee. But employee morale and enthusiasm remained consistently positive,
reflecting a widely shared sense of growth and renewal.
As a research hospital for the nation, the Hatfield Center will provide a new chance
at life for people from every state in the union. Many patients with poor prognoses —
patients told they had just weeks or months to live — are alive today because of their
participation in research studies at the Clinical Center. For many more patients, who
will never visit the NIH, the Hatfield Center promises to be the incubator of science
that will produce some of tomorrow’s greatest advances in medicine. This new
facility is a wonderful gift to the American people and to the world, a gift that
promises a healthier life for everyone.
Activating a clinical research hospital is an enormous undertaking; we’re lucky it
happens only once every 50 years! At the same time, we were charged with doing
more with less, and did so as our patient census and the intensity of service continued
to increase. There were 7.6% more inpatient days and 9.4 % more outpatient visits in
2004 than in 2003. In the same period, admissions increased 2.4% and the average
daily census increased 6.4%. The Clinical Center budget increased only 1.9%. While
managing limited fiscal resources, clinical and operational departments met the
demand for new and increasing levels of specialized services for the support of
institute research and improved patient services.
The Clinical Center also underwent organizational changes, including changes in the
Clinical Center’s governance structure. Based on recommendations from the NIH
Director’s Blue Ribbon Panel on the Future of Intramural Clinical Research, the
Clinical Center Board of Governors became the new NIH Advisory Board for Clinical
Research. The scope of this new advisory body extends beyond the Clinical Center to
the entire intramural clinical research program, the idea being to reinvigorate and
integrate it.
Let me take this opportunity to recognize and thank each and every Clinical Center
employee and patient volunteer. Their commitment, sustained enthusiasm, and
consistent efforts to support our clinical research efforts enabled us to successfully
achieve many important goals. I have every confidence that our team’s efforts and
commitment will make 2005 another successful year. |