The University of Maryland Medical System announced a new three-tiered structure yesterday that officials said should position the system to compete in the future.
The reorganization creates a "corporate" level with Dr. Morton I. Rapoport, UMMS' president and chief executive officer since 1984, continuing in those roles. Rapoport, with a staff of about a dozen, will concentrate on developing the system and on regulatory and financial issues.
The UM Medical Center on downtown's west side will gain its own chief executive officer -- Dr. Stephen C. Schimpff, who has been executive vice president of the system since 1984. Schimpff will run the hospital, which is affiliated with the University of Maryland School of Medicine, and develop new programs there.
A "community hospital group" makes the system's other hospitals -- Maryland General Health System, Deaton Hospital and Kernan Hospital -- independent of the medical center. In the group, James E. Ross will continue as CEO of Deaton and Kernan, and James R. Wood will continue as CEO of Maryland General, with an expanded role for dealing with the "West Baltimore marketplace."
Officials said the new structure was designed to reflect changes the system has undergone since the medical system was separated from the University of Maryland in 1984.
Since that time, the medical center has increasingly concentrated on high-technology, specialized care, including its Shock Trauma Center, cancer center and transplant program. And, like other hospitals affiliated with medical schools that have moved to create a system attractive to HMOs, it has spread beyond its downtown campus, acquiring the three community hospitals.
The new structure recognizes that "the downtown campus is the most important component of the system, but it's not the only component," said Nelson Sabatini, one of four "corporate" vice presidents in the new structure.
While the system looks to build relationships with community hospitals and other health care providers, it may do so largely through joint programs, not through acquisition. "We don't believe we can own enough hospitals," Rapoport said, to provide the referrals for specialized services at the system's flagship hospital, called University of Maryland Medical Center.
For example, the system now runs emergency rooms for hospitals in Hagerstown and on the Eastern Shore, provides telemedicine consultations for St. Mary's Hospital in Southern Maryland and is looking to build a statewide cancer network.
Such arrangements bring expertise from the medical center to hospitals throughout the state and bring patients from outlying areas to the downtown medical center for specialized care.
In bringing Maryland General into the system this year, Sabatini said, the system realized that community hospital administrators and physicians did not necessarily want to undertake the research and teaching functions of the downtown center, so "we had to define the relationship in a way that would not scare them away."
The division between the academic medical center and community hospitals, Schimpff added, also stems from increasing specialization at the center. Of about 500 patients on an average day, he said, about 200 are in some form of intensive care.
The medical center is licensed for 723 beds and generates about $500 million a year in revenue. The three community hospitals are licensed for 798 beds, including nursing and rehabilitation beds, and produce nearly $200 million in revenue.
Besides Sabatini, a former state health secretary who will be executive vice president for system development, other corporate vice presidents are:
Robert Chrencik, chief financial officer, corporate finance and strategy; M. Nicki Humphries, general counsel, legal affairs and corporate compliance; and Mark L. Wasserman, former state economic development secretary, external affairs and development.
Pub Date: 3/23/99