This 2011 file photo shows Kansas University Medical Center's School of Medicine, 3901 Rainbow Boulevard, Kansas City, Kan.

Kansas City, Kan. — In the homestretch of its 2011 to 2016 strategic plan, the Kansas University Medical Center has notched big strides but also grapples with some big challenges, particularly involving funding.

Doug Girod, the medical center’s executive vice chancellor, delivered a strategic plan update Wednesday to the Kansas Board of Regents, which held its March meeting at the school.

Overall, Girod said, the plan has five focus areas.

“Our goal is to educate, to discover, to heal, to engage and to innovate,” he said.

Highlights include expanding the KU School of Medicine-Wichita to a four-year campus and opening the KU School of Medicine-Salina, also a four-year campus.

Girod said the new Health Education Building, under construction now at the main campus, will change the way the schools of Medicine, Nursing and Health Professions teach.

From left, Douglas A. Girod, M.D., executive vice chancellor of KU Medical Center, KU Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little and Kansas Governor Sam Brownback visit Aug. 27, 2015, during a ceremonial groundbreaking at the University of Kansas Medical Center for its 5 million Health Education Building, which will serve as the primary teaching facility for the KU schools of Medicine, Nursing and Health Professions.

“Historically in health care we have trained our health care providers in isolation … each in their own silos if you will,” Girod said. “This will significantly enhance our ability for inter-professional education going forward.”

The KU Cancer Center received National Cancer Institute designation in 2012 and is preparing to reapply in September, Girod said. The goal this time is to obtain an even more elite designation, that of Comprehensive Cancer Center.

In January of this year, the medical center finalized a long process of clinical integration with KU Hospital — majorly streamlining and making more efficient how the two work together, Girod said.

One funding goal has been to increase sponsored research expenditures to $110 million.

The medical center hit that goal in 2013 and 2015 and expects to hit it again, Girod said. However, with National Institutes of Health grant application success rates slumping nationally, it hasn’t been easy, and the medical center has many activities in place hoped to help enhance its success rate.

“For every 100 (grant requests) we put in, we’re fortunate to get 18 of those funded, so it’s a very difficult environment for that,” Girod said.

State funding also has been a challenge, Girod said, with inflation outpacing support. Adjusted for inflation, the medical center has had a 32 percent reduction in its state general fund from 2002 to 2016, according to a medical center chart.

As a result of reductions, Girod said, the medical center has:

• Cut facilities positions from 153 to 91.

• Decreased administrative positions by 45 percent.

• Reduced library staffing by 50 percent.

• Decreased western Kansas medical outreach airplane flights by 60 percent.

• Closed several programs in western Kansas and Kansas City.

“But probably the biggest challenge for us is lack of ability to give raises to our staff,” Girod said, saying there has been only one 2 percent employee salary increase in eight years.

On the bright side of funding, the campus reached its goal of raising $250 million in KU Endowment’s Far Above campaign.

“We actually shattered that goal and have raised $360 million for the medical center during the five years of this strategic plan,” Girod said.

Regent Ann Brandau-Murgia is a Kansas City, Kan., resident and a representative on the Board of Commissioners of the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kan.

She called KU Medical Center and Hospital huge assets for the area, because of the health care they provide and jobs they create.

“Where you’re located makes a big difference in the quality of life for the people that live in one of the lowest income counties in the state of Kansas,” Brandau-Murgia said.

Looking ahead to the next five years, Girod said the medical center plans to align goals with its partners’ strategic plans — including the Board of Regents Foresight 2020 plan and KU’s Bold Aspirations plan — and prioritizing initiatives based on available resources.