From the Desk of Dr. Andy
Andrew C. Agwunobi, MD, MBA, Chief Executive Officer, EVP for Health Affairs, UConn Health
Dear Colleagues,
I hope you are gearing up for a restful long weekend, or that if you are working you find some time to get outside and enjoy the weather.
As you may recall, we have begun a new Project Thrive for fiscal 2027 (July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2027). Like last year, Project Thrive is a focused effort to close our budget gap with a combination of cost reductions and revenue enhancement. Two months into the fiscal year, we are tracking toward $18.3 million in savings against our goal of $54.3 million. Put another way, so far, we have identified $18.3 million for the whole year, but we are only realizing (or bringing into the budget) a certain portion of that each month. As the thermometer shows, to date we have realized $2 million, which is estimated to yield $18.3 million by June 30, 2027, if those realized revenues/savings continue at the expected rate. There is a lot more work to do to reach our goal of $54.3 million, but together I know we will be successful.
One example of projected savings is our ongoing voluntary schedule reduction program (VSRP). We are averaging about $33K per pay period in salary savings in fiscal 27 with VSRP through our first five pay periods. Our fiscal 26 goal was to save $500K, and we exceeded that goal with $809K in salary savings. If we maintain the current pace, we are likely to match or exceed last year's savings in this fiscal year.
With 10 months to go, we are holding bi-weekly meetings to identify and implement new revenue and expense savings ideas that are not already included in our budget.
Monday we are observing Labor Day, the day our country pays tribute to the contributions of the American worker. It's a fitting time to acknowledge the contributions of all of you who make our organization thrive. None of the great things we have accomplished and will continue to accomplish could take place without you. I also want to thank our unions for their advocacy for our employees and for the constructive relationship with management.
Meanwhile, just in time for Labor Day comes news from our medical school's Department of Public Health Sciences. Professor Jenn Cavallari co-directs the Center for the Promotion of Health in the New England Workplace (CPH-NEW), a joint interdisciplinary initiative of UConn Health, Storrs, and the University of Massachusetts Lowell funded by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Under what was a five-year "CPH-NEW IV" grant, she has received a supplemental sixth year of funding
