By Karen Littleton
"Our goal is to establish a very practical facility that will create
positive relationships with practitioners, colleagues and partners.”
William Henrich, MD, Dean of the School of Medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, came to the helm of the medical school in March with experience leading complicated organizations.
With a full list of professional achievements, including 11 years of experience as a Chair of Medicine, most recently at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Dr. Henrich displayed the kind of leadership and visionary qualities the board of UTHSCSA was seeking.
His overall vision for the school’s future is relatively simple: “The reason I came to UTHSCSA was because I want to see our School of Medicine rise in the ranks of the schools of medicine in the state and country. Our aspiration is to be the best and to be a useful resource as well as a source of great pride for our community.”
In order to achieve this goal, funds are needed to sustain and grow an excellent faculty, and to create the best learning environment for students, residents and post graduate fellows. With state education funds in a flat funding pattern and hospital profit margins reduced, where will funds for seeding and sustaining educational and research excellence come from?
One source Dr. Henrich and his colleagues are counting on is the new University of Texas Medicine Clinic, which broke ground in October. It is a multidisciplinary University of Texas medical facility in the South Texas Medical Center.
By consolidating different specialty practices into one location, Dr. Henrich and his colleagues hope to provide a patient-oriented, user-friendly facility that will enhance the prestige already enjoyed by the South Texas Medical Center at large.
When asked about possible competition by the University of Texas Medicine Clinic for the private practitioners’ patient dollars, Dr. Henrich said, “Our goal is to establish a very practical facility that will create positive relationships with practitioners, colleagues and partners.
“Some services will definitely require joint staffing with full-time faculty physicians and private practitioners, creating win/win situations for all involved – especially the patients we’ll serve,” he said.
He said he hopes to see the new clinic develop as a two-way street, where medical practitioners can benefit as both referring physicians and referred physicians.
“If additional finances are created through this center for practicing physicians on staff, then the independent practitioners can realize some of that benefit because they may have specialties that will augment the services our clinic will offer.
Though Dr. Henrich feels optimistic about the potential for this facility, he’s a realist in terms of any local feelings that exist toward this venture.
“There is a perception out there that the medical school’s practice is heavily subsidized by the state of Texas, so it follows that some will see this new building as an unfair advantage in seeking new patients.” He added, “The truth is, the budget constraints we face within the School of Medicine and the Health Science Center require that we find resources other than the state to keep us solvent, as funds coming from the state are largely earmarked for teaching and administration costs without much extra available.”
Dr. Henrich drew a distinction regarding profits earned by the new clinical ambulatory building.
“We want to reinvest our earnings into our education and research missions, so we are looking to make enough so we can be responsible for our own financial destiny.
“This will ensure that future generations of physicians educated at our school will derive the benefits of being educated at one of the very best schools in our country.”
The hospital dollars UTHSCSA receives go right back into the hospital service, and basically, are all linked to particular services.
“We trust this new building will earn a margin that will allow us to
further our academic missions,”
Dr. Henrich said.
Another misperception Dr. Henrich addressed was the funding for erecting the University of Texas Medicine Clinic building. He said, “The costs of erecting this new building will come from practice resources and reserves. No bond issue or taxpayer funding is involved.”
There has been a long-held tradition of separation within the South Texas medical community: private practitioners versus academic physicians who combine, in varying degrees, patient care, educating medical students and research.
One way in which Dr. Henrich hopes to address this chasm is by encouraging area practitioners to interact with medical students at all levels.
When University Hospital’s budgetary constraints made it no longer possible for them to pay medical students’ membership dues to Bexar County Medical Society and other professional organizations, Dr. Henrich stepped up and pledged to have the medical school assume those dues.
Bexar County Medical Society Executive Director Stephen Fitzer said, “Having Dean Henrich join the society, and his allowing the School of Medicine to assume the dues paid for medical students represents a huge step toward future cooperative efforts.”
“Students today need to meet with and gain exposure to private practitioners so they can learn the pressures and demands from the perspective of those physicians,” Dr. Henrich said.
“Medical students already see the pressures of academic medicine, but the medical school has an obligation to provide them a well-rounded glimpse of all physicians’ practices, so they can make informed choices when they decide their medical career paths,” he said.
Efforts like that may seem small, but Henrich wants to help bridge the academic versus private physician gap that exists.
“Physicians do very well as colleagues together, as long as they don’t allow organizations with agendas to erect barriers between them,” he said.
“Every physician has taken the same oath and is interested ultimately in the health of the community, and in providing hope for the future,” he said.
With a lot of effort, a little luck and by keeping the channels of communication open throughout the local medical community, Dr. Henrich hopes the University of Texas Medicine Clinic will mark a new era in uniting area physicians toward a common goal: serving patients more efficiently and effectively every year.
