Faculty Seeks Restructuring of Medical Sciences : Academia: Action is sought from incoming chancellor to ensure cooperation between UCI College of Medicine and teaching hospital.
IRVINE — Urging more cooperation between the UCI College of Medicine and its teaching hospital, the faculty voted Tuesday evening to ask incoming chancellor Laurel L. Wilkening to restructure medical sciences on campus.
The idea proposed by Dr. Walter Henry, dean of the medical school, is to create a vice chancellor of medical sciences to whom both the medical school dean and the executive director of the hospital would report and who would be empowered to resolve any differences between them.
The proposal was proffered by Henry at a well-attended meeting of the Academic Senate of the medical school. He had been summoned there to answer a number of strong complaints about his leadership raised by the medical faculty, 55 of whom had signed a petition asking for an early review of his record that could lead to his dismissal.
Henry, who has been dean for 4 1/2 years, answered the criticisms individually, apologizing for not previously making a more concerted effort to communicate with the faculty.
He denied allegations that plans to create a research and clinically oriented Center for Health Sciences on campus would undermine the quality of existing departments at the school.
Interdisciplinary programs that would be fostered at the Center for Health Sciences, Henry said, are the national trend in medicine and medical research.
Henry now is both medical school dean and vice chancellor of health sciences.
Under his proposal, those jobs would be held by separate people. The dean and the executive director of the hospital would report to the vice chancellor, who could mediate their differences.
While some faculty complained that the hospital administration has been insensitive to the needs of the medical school, Henry stressed that Mary Piccione, the hospital executive director, has succeeded in pulling the facility out of deep fiscal problems, bringing it from a $13.1-million deficit in 1987-1988 to a break-even position over the last two years.
“It has been her ability to bring the hospital into a break-even point, that has allowed us to go forward with our plans for the health sciences center,†he said later in an interview. “We are all in this together.â€
After the meeting, Academic Senate Chairman James H. Fallon said he believes that the faculty had shown “a vote of confidence†for Henry. “It was fabulous. Everything was aired,†he said, complimenting the dean for fielding all questions.
However, Henry said he was not so certain. “My sense is that there is a lot of frustration,†he said. The sources of stress are many, he said, including a wage cut this year and changes in medical school curriculum to reflect a national demand for more primary care physicians.
He said the hospital and medical school will have to make decisions about the volume of patients the hospital will handle, taking into account the shift in training emphasis from inpatient to outpatient care.
“There are absolutely sea changes going on in health care,†he said. “Everybody has to work together. If we become divided into factions pointing fingers at each other, I think our ability to respond to change is limited.â€
