During one of his first stops on a statewide tour, Dr. H. Dele Davies, the priority candidate for University of Nebraska Medical Center chancellor, said he’s excited for UNMC’s future.
Davies, who has served as interim chancellor for two years, was named earlier this month as the priority candidate to permanently take over the position. Now, he undergoes a 30-day vetting process, after which the Board of Regents will vote on whether to approve his position.
Through June 3, Davies is visiting with community members in Kearney, Omaha, Lincoln, Norfolk and Scottsbluff. On Thursday afternoon, Davies met with UNMC members in Omaha. Davies has been at the medical center for 14 years. He said as part of the public vetting process, he’s been highlighting work he’s been a part of while also looking toward the future.
Davies pointed to Project Health, a new hospital and learning facility being constructed in Omaha. It will have more than 550 beds.
“Beyond the building, it’s also going to be an opportunity to innovate in how we care for patients, innovate in how we train the next generation of healthcare providers and innovate in terms of how we do clinical research, so that every single patient who comes here has an opportunity to be enrolled in a trial that could be life changing for them,” Davies said.
There will be areas for simulations and patient rooms will be bigger to allow more people to come in, such as students.
“We usually round with medical students and residents and pharmacists and social workers and nurses, because there’s evidence that when you train and when you provide care in the interdisciplinary teams, the patients do better, because something’s less likely to be missed,” Davies said.
At the Thursday staff forum in Omaha, UNMC members asked about preparing for cybersecurity attacks, professional development and measuring goals like community engagement.
On Wednesday, Davies spoke with people in Kearney, where he said he heard about a desire to grow UNMC across the state.
“It was really just an affirmation of the work that I’ve been doing over the last two years,” Davies said. “Then looking forward to how we can continue to grow our partnerships or relationships, grow the healthcare workforce of the state of Nebraska, continue the great lifesaving cures of research that we do here every day, and then continue to make sure that we’re strong in helping to meet the healthcare needs of the state of Nebraska.”
The University of Nebraska at Kearney opened a second part of the Health Science Education Center in January, which is an expansion of UNMC’s physical presence in Kearney.
“We just cut the ribbon on a new building, and so that’s something that still there’s a lot of buzz about,” Davies said.
He added that UNMC continues to work with hospital leaders to understand what they need, as well as sharing what medical center students need to stay in rural communities.
“Ultimately, when our students and our residents go to those small communities, it’s really an audition for them to see whether they want to stay in those communities,” Davies said.
An 18-member search advisory committee made up of students, faculty, staff, community members, alumni, philanthropists and more narrowed down the search and picked Davies as the priority candidate. Dr. Jeffrey Gold, University of Nebraska president and former UNMC chancellor, said he hopes people across the state submit feedback on Davies.
“The community broadly, the ecosystem of not only UNMC, but the entire university and all of our stakeholders across the state, which is nearly all 2 million Nebraskans and beyond, have an opportunity to share their thoughts,” Gold said. “They typically do, and they do it very transparently and openly,”
Gold said UNMC is being seen on a national and global stage right now with diseases like hantavirus and ebola.
“This is a pivotal moment for UNMC and for the university,” Gold said. “Having a chancellor and having somebody with the qualifications of Dr. Davies — who not only is individually qualified from his background and experiences, but knows the community and knows the institution so well— is just a really exciting moment.”
Davies said he loves UNMC, and he’s excited to continue working with Nebraska communities.
“We’ve worked together for years, and they know that when we say we’re going to do something, we do it,” Davies said. “When I go out and I just hear about how people feel about the partnerships that we’ve developed over the years, and their excitement about continuing those partnerships, that really gets me energized and excited.”