Watson Wire
Focus
Tuesday, May 15, 2012 |
It's a busy week. I'm traveling on business, passing through too many airports, and, as always, working on the medical school and our other 10-in-10 goals.
But there's an even bigger deal in Watson-land this week: our oldest son, Preston, is graduating from UT on Friday.
So follow me on Twitter and Facebook for updates this week. Come back for more news next week. And, in the meantime, congratulations to all those kids who made it to this point, including Preston McDaniel Watson, B.A., University of Texas at Austin, 2012.
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We All Win if We Finish the Job
Tuesday, May 08, 2012 |
In case you've been in a coma, I have two bits of news that I didn't expect to be so related. First, I've been doing a fair bit of talking about health care. Second, I've lost a fair amount of weight.
Because of the weight loss, I feel great, I think I must look as great as I feel, and I get to write and brag about it all.
However, I think it's created some confusion. As I’ve noted before, I occasionally have to deal with people’s hallucinations about things like missing facial hair.
In addition, some folks haven’t exactly leapt to the combination of running, weights and hunger (my cocktail of choice in 2012) as the cause of my appearance. Instead, I worry that they think I’m not OK, or that I’m sick.
I’ve deduced this because people keep asking me questions like, “Are you OK?” or “Are you sick?” Worse, they always ask in a hushed, serious tone that creates a surprising amount of worry for the listener.
My response is always the same: I’m OK. I’m not sick. I feel great. I’m working hard, eating right and probably healthier than they’ve ever seen me. And their response is always the same too: they immediately change course and say, “Man, you look great.”
Let’s face it: there are only a couple of ways to look at that.
The first is to assume that they aren’t exactly telling the truth, or that they’ve changed their appraisal only because they’ve heard my explanation. In other words, I stop looking like a sick person only when they’re reassured that I’m not a sick person.
That’s not terribly reassuring. But it is better than the other explanation:
That I look great for someone they thought was sick.
Wrapping up a big week, and looking forward
I also wanted to make sure you saw this great editorial in the American-Statesman over the weekend on the vote. The editorial makes three essential points: first, we’ve come a very long way, and after years of talk, we’re finally on the cusp of realizing this dream that so many in the community have shared.
Second, and importantly, there’s more work to do.
Third, and most importantly, we each win in some way when we achieve this. There are so many benefits to getting a medical school, 21st Century teaching hospital, uniquely Austin health clinics and the other great assets a city gets when it becomes a modern health center.
The new playbook, here and elsewhere
The Rio Grande Valley in South Texas, for instance, has been working and fighting for a much-needed medical school for decades. That region knows, too well, that building a medical school generally has been a win-lose proposition in the Capitol. With limited money in the budget, one region often had to lose for another region to win such a valuable asset.
But now, there’s no state money and little hope for more in the future. Win-lose has become lose-lose, and every region that wants a medical school must follow a new path to building one.
I really believe that the playbook we’ve developed here in Austin – one that relies on innovative public-private partnerships, the coordination of resources, and a ton of creativity and hard work – is the only way for Austin or any other Texas region to get where we need to go in this new era.
I’m not the only one. This editorial from the Monitor in South Texas demonstrates how profoundly the game has changed.
Community coming together
Yes, it’s going to take time and significant local commitment to build a medical school. But it’s now within our power to create these resources without waiting for a legislature that hasn’t helped us in the past and isn’t likely to do so in the future.
That’s why the UT Regents' vote last week marks such a huge shift. As the Statesman editorial (which, again, you really should read) said, “For years, the idea of building a medical school in Austin was no more than smoke: You could see it, but you couldn't hold it.”
Well, it’s a lot more than smoke now. The UT System has committed up to $30 million a year. The Seton Healthcare Family has tentatively pledged $250 million for a new teaching hospital. Seton and Central Health (the Travis County health care district) have launched a landmark agreement that will change how health care is delivered in Austin.
These are concrete steps. We’re succeeding. This is going to happen.
And we aren’t in this alone. All of these partners are stepping forward. The community is coming together.
It’s up to us to finish the job. We all will win when we do.
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We’re Succeeding
Thursday, May 03, 2012 |
A few minutes ago, the Board of Regents for the University of Texas System voted to commit tens of millions of dollars a year to a medical school in Austin. That means we’re close – closer than we’ve ever been – to delivering this community a medical school and the wealth of health care and economic resources that come with it.
So today’s a big day in the history of Austin and Central Texas. It shows that our new playbook – one that relies on innovative public-private partnerships, the coordination of resources, and a ton of creativity and hard work – is working.
Really, this whole effort has been about building a bridge to a modern health care system and economy. And this Board of Regents vote – along with announcements last week of plans for a state-of-the-art teaching hospital and a new agreement transforming the way health care is delivered in this community – puts us most of the way toward completing that bridge.
It’s up to us to finish the job – because, as you know, an unfinished bridge leads nowhere. We’ll be talking more in the coming weeks about the next, last steps toward completing this transformative work for our health, our families and our economy.
When we’re finished, it will mean not just a medical school and teaching hospital, but also:
- Modern health clinics tailored to our unique needs and neighborhoods.
- New research assets that will power the Central Texas economy for generations.
- New cancer treatment and research facilities that will make Austin a center for comprehensive cancer care.
- New, badly needed resources to help those with mental and behavioral health issues.
All of these things are among the 10 Goals in 10 Years that I’ve set out for our community. You can learn more about those goals – and sign up to help achieve them – at www.healthyatx.org.
Finally, you’ll find below a memo I’ve sent to the Organizing Committee that I put together to help work on the 10-in-10 Goals. It describes in more detail what happened today and what it means.
As I say there, thanks to the help, work and dedication of this community, I’m as confident as I’ve ever been that we’re going to succeed.
Memo to 10 in 10 Organizing Committee
Dear Organizing Committee members,
Today, the University of Texas System Board of Regents passed a resolution committing tens of millions of additional dollars – every year – to support the launch, operation and staffing of a medical school in Austin. The resolution dedicates $30 million annually through the start up years, with a continued yearly commitment of $25 million beyond.
This is an exciting, extraordinary vote that will help define Austin as a center for 21st Century health care excellence. It’s a huge step toward completing the bridge we’ve been building to a healthier, more prosperous future. And it’s a definitive statement that the University of Texas System is dedicated not only to a medical school in Austin, but also to the unique new community partnership we’ve launched to make it happen.
As you know, this vote comes less than two weeks after the Seton Healthcare Family preliminarily committed up to $250 million toward the construction of a modern teaching hospital that will replace University Medical Center Brackenridge.
It also comes on the heels of a Letter of Intent between Central Health (the Travis County health care district) and Seton to modernize and upgrade the community’s long-time public/private partnership serving our safety net population. This historic agreement, when complete, should ensure that more people have greater access to better health care, and it may allow the community to better take advantage of tens of millions of federal dollars under the 1115 Medicaid Waiver.
Together, these developments:
- Represent essential pillars in our collaborative community effort to build not just a medical school and teaching hospital, but also modern health clinics tailored to our unique needs and neighborhoods; new research assets that will power our economy; new facilities that will make Austin a center for comprehensive cancer care; new mental and behavioral health care resources; and other facets of our 10 Goals in 10 Years.
- Show that our new model for achieving the 10 in 10 Goals and creating these investments is working. With this vote, the Regents join a diverse collection of partners – public and private – that’s banded together to assess existing resources that can be used to create a medical school and other health care assets; break down silos impeding coordination of those resources; size-up the gap between the funds we have and those we need to complete the 10 in 10 Goals; and figure out ways to bridge that gap. Each of you, through your work on this committee, is part of this growing partnership, and you know – particularly in light of the Regents’ decision – how successful it’s proving to be.
- Clarify what the remaining funding gap looks like. As I’ve said from the very beginning of this process, the people of Austin and Travis County can’t be expected to build a medical school or the other health care assets without a substantial commitment from community partners. Well, those partners – including Seton and the UT System – have stepped up in a dramatic way, dedicating an extraordinarily high percentage of the resources we’ll need to meet the community’s goals.
The Regents’ decision is contingent on a match of $35 million per year, on average, from other partners or sources. We can think of this new commitment of money as part of a larger and beneficial matching fund, because the investment of $35 million will draw down hundreds of millions of dollars in resources from the UT System, its institutions, Seton and other sources that have been identified to fund the medical school.
It will also create massive economic benefits across the region, be the cornerstone of a new economy and quality of life in Austin, and meet many of the goals embodied in the 10 in 10.
And, frankly, the opportunity costs of failure are imposing. If we don’t make this investment, we’ll lose the health and economic benefits that are now within our reach and end up with the same unmet needs that this community already knows too well.
(Similarly, the Board of Regents today laudably resolved to support funding of an equally badly needed medical school in South Texas. The support is contingent on that region continuing to make progress on medical residency slots and revenue streams to help fund the school. Again, this demonstrates the new playbook – one that relies in part on locally organized public/private partnerships – for creating medical schools in Texas.)
This local funding can take a number of forms – including philanthropy, taxes and assessments – and we’ll be working over the coming weeks to flesh out how that participation should look and what proportion of it should be borne by different interests.
But we now see what we’ve always known: by using a new model of community collaboration and leveraging some of our extraordinary resources to attract funds from a multitude of sources, we can achieve our very big goals and complete a bridge to a medical school and modern health care system.
More than that, with this latest commitment, we now have the resources to build most of that bridge.
It’s up to us, as members of this committee and citizens of this community, to maintain the momentum, continue the really good work that’s been done and close the remaining gap.
If we do that, we’ll create transformative change – both in the economic health of this region, and in the physical and mental health of people in every part this community.
We’ll connect medical students and researchers with work that’s already going on at the University of Texas, and we’ll direct those discoveries toward patients at a new, state-of-the-art hospital who need them.
We’ll ensure that Central Texans get the treatment they require right here at home, alleviating the need to travel to Dallas, Houston or far-off cities that already experience the benefits of medical education.
We’ll train the doctors we know we need to care for a growing population, and we’ll keep them in the region – just as other communities with medical schools and teaching hospitals have.
And, acting in unity and shared vision, we’ll create 15,000 permanent jobs and close to $2 billion in economic activity; expand access and options for treating the uninsured; and provide new therapies designed to improve the health of everyone in this region.
I want to thank Chairman Powell, the Board of Regents, Chancellor Cigarroa, Executive Vice Chancellor Shine, Vice Chancellor and Counsel Shaw-Thomas, Dean Cox, President Powers, Vice President & Provost Leslie, and many others at the University of Texas System, UT Southwestern Medical Center and UT Austin for their hard work, creativity and dedication to their institutions and to this community. They have done an enormous amount of work, and made an equally large commitment, to help us get where we want to go.
Now, we have to finish the job. We’re close, and we’re succeeding. Thanks to the help, work and dedication of this committee and people across this community, I'm as confident as I've ever been that we will.
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A Healthy Weekend
Tuesday, April 24, 2012 |
How was my weekend? So glad you asked.
In terms of well-rounded quality, Saturday was pretty close to perfect.
In no particular order, I:
- Delivered a couple of speeches to the Travis and Bastrop county Democratic Party conventions.
- Got confirmation that Central Health (the Travis County health care district) and Seton Healthcare Family have tentatively signed off on a revolutionary agreement that will transform health care, the economy and quality-of-life in this region.
- Watched the Austin High lacrosse team win a great, tight divisional playoff game, 7-5.
By just about any measure, that’s one fine day. So I celebrated. By eating – a lot. And I liked it. My new, light-weight lifestyle took a beating. And I don't care.
My theory is that, with all that food consumed, I came away from Saturday even more well-rounded.
A Healthy Austin
But first, we need you to tell us your story.
Specifically, please go to this brand new web site and write about your experience with health care in this community.
Maybe you or someone you love got great treatment here, and you want to be sure others can get it too. Maybe Austin didn’t have the resources you needed, and you or a loved one had to go to Houston, Dallas or somewhere else for care. Or maybe you just have a unique insight into the needs of this community and ways to address those needs.
We all want – and we need – to hear what you have to say.
HealthyATX
HealthyATX is starting with one health care story: mine. You can watch it here.
That’s part of the reason health care is such a passion for me. And I know there are thousands and thousands of others in our community who feel just as strongly, and whose stories are just as compelling.
So go to HealthyATX.org. Tell us what you’ve seen and experienced.
Because we all have a health care story.
What’s yours?
A landmark agreement
On Saturday, the Seton Healthcare Family and Central Health signed a landmark agreement, known as a Letter of Intent, that will help create a new way of delivering health care in Austin.
I wrote a pretty comprehensive memo providing some historical perspective and details about the Letter of Intent, and you can find that here. You can also read an article summarizing the agreement here.
The arrangement re-vamps the public/private partnership through which Seton and Central Health have been serving this community for years – and especially the under-served and uninsured “safety net” population here. It solidifies the foundation of our health care system for the 21st Century by integrating various components of that system. And it leverages resources so we can potentially draw down as much federal health care money as possible.
New hospital, new opportunities
The centerpiece of this effort likely will be a joint effort to build a new public hospital to replace University Medical Center Brackenridge.
Brack is a proud facility that’s served this community well. But as a recent study from two distinguished national experts demonstrates, the years have taken a toll and the hospital simply doesn’t meet current needs, let alone the increasing demands of the 21st Century.
A new teaching hospital could be paired with a new medical school in Austin to provide better care and increased access for everyone, as well as a considerably stronger safety net for those who rely on it.
That pairing will also increase cutting-edge care and reduce the need for travel to Houston or Dallas for treatments. It will help with research into new biotech products and efforts to bring those discoveries to market – to the huge benefit of the Central Texas economy. And it'll help train new generations of doctors and medical students – and help keep them in the region (which is falling behind when it comes to the doctors we have and the doctors we need to serve our population).
This is an exciting time – and, as such, a timely effort. Seton and Central Health should both be proud of the work they’ve put in and the additional work that’s yet to come. There's still lots to be done, and lots of details to be addressed. Among other things, it will take a vote of Seton's parent organization's board to make money available. And the Central Health board faces some big decisions too.
But big steps have been taken. There's lots to celebrate.
Because, as I said earlier, everyone has a health care story. And for all of us, as a community, this is going to be a big part of ours.
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Tune In, Turn Out This Week
Tuesday, April 17, 2012 |
Given all of the false starts, missteps and court cases that have gone into deciding whether we'll ever get to vote for our legislators and congressional reps again, it’s easy to forget that there's an election coming up.
But there is. And folks are starting to tune in to the issues and choices that’ll be represented on the primary ballot in six weeks and in the General Election in six and a half months.
If you’re one of those folks, I hope you’ll come out and see me when I’m out and about this week. On Thursday, I'll be in Fort Worth (not far from where I grew up) for a Tarrant County Democratic Party event.
And on Saturday, I'll be at the Travis and Bastrop county Democratic conventions.
At all of those places – and, frankly, throughout this year’s campaign and next year’s legislative session – I’ll be talking about the legacy-defining decisions we’ll have to make over the next year or so to determine where we want to go as a state.
Texas can do better
Look, Texas is a great place. There’s nowhere in the world I’d rather live and raise a family. But the truth is that Texas can do better.
Texas can do better by reforming state government to be more transparent in how it spends taxpayer money and more honest in how it accounts for it. I've been pushing an Honesty Agenda for some time now. I've been fighting for it. Why has something so basic proven to be such a battle? Because those in control of the Capitol have refused to reform the system they control. And, yes, that includes the Governor.
Texas can do better by finding a permanent solution to funding public education and creating the great schools that our kids and teachers – and, ultimately, our employers – deserve.
And Texas can do better by implementing an agenda for the middle-class that restores necessities to seniors and children, invests in early childhood education, controls the costs of college, establishes Texas as the national leader in new energy in addition to fossil fuels, and helps small businesses along with big corporations.
Texas became a great state because the folks who came before us never neglected the opportunities that guaranteed our long-term success. We’ve got to honor and extend that legacy, not put short-term special interests over the needs of this great state that our kids will eventually inherit.
Good Chemistry
Cooper Kyle Watson is our youngest son. He’s 16 and a junior at Austin High School. He’s one of those lucky kids who’s discovered what he loves (besides his dear old dad). He loves science. He’s good at it.
And he has skills beyond being able to recite the periodic table (which is to say, beyond mine). Cooper recently organized and created a chemistry club at AHS. He’s the inaugural president.
Best of all, he got word last week that he’s going to spend four weeks this summer in a science research program at Baylor University. It’s designed to give high school kids some hands-on experience in research. He’ll live on campus, work with college professors and get college credit while working in chemistry and biochemistry.
This is a tremendous program, and we’re very proud of him.
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