2008 Woodie Awards
UIHC looks for unity
Zhi Xiong - The Daily Iowan
Issue date: 2/4/08 Section: Metro
Since its 1898 beginning, directors of the UI Hospitals and Clinics butted heads with deans of the medical school. Personality, power, and philosophical rifts throughout the following century were documented in the 1996 book, *The Rise of a University Teaching Hospital*, by Samuel Levey, a professor of health management and policy.
The idea of an administrator holding sway over both entities was an unappealing concept - the last VP of Health Sciences, Henri Manasse, was gone in about three years. But the state Board of Regents and Interim President Gary Fethke gave it another chance.
They asked Jean Robillard, dean of the Carver College of Medicine, to head a new umbrella entity, UI Health Care, combining the hospital, medical school, and physician group. Robillard became vice president of medical affairs in January 2007. He believes one overarching administrative body eliminates the differences that once put deans and hospital directors at odds.
"We all have to go the same speed," he said of the two groups. "Is there a change of culture? Of course."
Health care gradually became synonymous with industry instead of charity, and many institutions adapted to the free market, the late Roger Petersdorf wrote in Levey's book. This drove hospitals to break from cumbersome administrative layers.
In December, Robillard hired an interim hospital director. Gordon Williams, a UI alumnus and former senior official at Duke University, brought the necessary management skills to buttress such a transition, Robillard wrote in an e-mail to hospital faculty. He will stay for one year, tops.
Williams also held high-ranking positions at the University of Pennsylvania and Northwestern University. He speaks in a crisp, clipped manner peppered with the words "business" and "management."
"The really good [schools] are realizing this is a big business," he said. "If you're sitting at the top and you don't start thinking more in business terms, I think it's where you start falling behind."
The idea of an administrator holding sway over both entities was an unappealing concept - the last VP of Health Sciences, Henri Manasse, was gone in about three years. But the state Board of Regents and Interim President Gary Fethke gave it another chance.
They asked Jean Robillard, dean of the Carver College of Medicine, to head a new umbrella entity, UI Health Care, combining the hospital, medical school, and physician group. Robillard became vice president of medical affairs in January 2007. He believes one overarching administrative body eliminates the differences that once put deans and hospital directors at odds.
"We all have to go the same speed," he said of the two groups. "Is there a change of culture? Of course."
Health care gradually became synonymous with industry instead of charity, and many institutions adapted to the free market, the late Roger Petersdorf wrote in Levey's book. This drove hospitals to break from cumbersome administrative layers.
In December, Robillard hired an interim hospital director. Gordon Williams, a UI alumnus and former senior official at Duke University, brought the necessary management skills to buttress such a transition, Robillard wrote in an e-mail to hospital faculty. He will stay for one year, tops.
Williams also held high-ranking positions at the University of Pennsylvania and Northwestern University. He speaks in a crisp, clipped manner peppered with the words "business" and "management."
"The really good [schools] are realizing this is a big business," he said. "If you're sitting at the top and you don't start thinking more in business terms, I think it's where you start falling behind."
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