Implementing a simpler approach to mission-based planning in a medical school.

Changes in the education, research, and health care environments have had a major impact on the way in which medical schools fulfill their missions, and mission-based management approaches have been suggested to link the financial information of mission costs and revenues with measures of mission activity and productivity. The authors describe a simpler system, termed Mission-Aligned Planning (MAP), and its development and implementation, during fiscal years 2002 and 2003, at the School of Medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, Texas. The MAP system merges financial measures and activity measures to allow a broad understanding of the mission activities, to facilitate strategic planning at the school and departmental levels.