Dear Team –
When we launched Reimagine HHS, our effort to evaluate how our department can better perform its mission, we laid out six principles for how we hoped that effort would go.
The first of them was engagement. It is early in the process, but we are so impressed with the level of engagement from everyone across the department. You have lived up to what we asked, and then some.
OpDivs and StaffDivs—every single one of them—have been eager to put forward candidates to participate in the five Reimagine workgroups, which are structured around the goals of the Department’s Strategic Plan: Healthcare Systems, Public Health, Economic & Social Well-being, Scientific Advancement, and Management & Stewardship. Meanwhile, suggestions from staff across the Department have been pouring in to ReimagineHHS@hhs.gov and our Suggestion Box.
This passionate response is the most encouraging way we could possibly have started the Reimagine process.
It may seem obvious why engagement is so important: We need members of the HHS team to be willing to share their ideas, assess proposals, and then eventually implement them.
But it is also crucial because a meaningful and successful process of reimagining must begin with the expertise of the dedicated public servants who work here at HHS.
As I mentioned in my remarks inaugurating this effort, we all are stewards of this Department. You care deeply for the work we do, and care deeply about how we can do it better. The knowledge that we need to make Reimagine HHS successful—to serve the American people the best way possible—resides with you.
All of this is to say, keep up the good work—in what you do every day, but also in sending ideas our way and staying in touch with your OpDiv and StaffDiv leadership about this process.
Those leaders have now designated members of your division for each of the five workgroups, which will assemble this Monday, May 15. They will be spending the next two weeks examining the goals of our department, how we’re achieving them today, and how we can better achieve them tomorrow.
Keep in mind this is a long-term effort. The two weeks these workgroups will spend together is just the beginning of this process. If an idea or reform doesn’t come up over the next two weeks, it doesn’t mean it can’t be proposed beyond this initial two week work period.
We’ll continue to provide regular updates on this process in the coming weeks. Based on what we have seen so far, the HHS team will continue to live up to the principles we’ve set out for this process and will set the standard among the cabinet agencies.
Thank you for the work you do and for your engagement in this important exercise.
Thomas E. Price, M.D. Secretary of Health and Human Services