|
||||||||
|
EDUCATION Harvard Bolsters Its Financial Commitment to Medical Education at Affiliated Hospitals Harvard President Neil Rudenstine and Medical School Dean Joseph B. Martin recently announced that Harvard is undertaking several steps to help affiliated hospitals support academic programs during their current financial strain. The plan calls for Harvard to increase the payout on the 102 hospital-based endowed professorships, to allow for greater flexibility in the way the funds are used and to increase clinical department allocations from HMS, beginning this academic year. "Both the University's and the Medical School's administrations are keenly aware that our teaching hospitals are under incredible financial pressures," Martin says. "Medicare funding has been slashed, managed care's market penetration has increased, and insurance reimbursements have either remained flat or have fallen. These cuts in revenue are making it difficult for our hospitals and faculty to carry out their academic missions." More than $20 million in increased endowment payouts will be made to the hospitals during the next five years. The University requires that the supplemental funds—which are contingent upon the stock market maintaining its value—be used in accordance with the terms of the original gift. In addition, the fund recipients must report each year how the funds were used. According to Martin, the supplemental funds are fully incremental over and above the normal Medical School budget. It is stipulated that they are used as additional investments in undergraduate medical education, such as supporting the supervision of teaching in the ambulatory setting, financing the new Resident as a Teacher Program, or improving clerkships. The funds also can be used to support a course head or a clerkship director whose hospital support was reduced. Endowed professors who focus on research can allocate up to 25 percent of the supplemental funds to support their research or other academic activities. However, the funds cannot be used to increase an endowed professor's personal compensation, nor can they be used to support patient care or clinical activity. The funds will be distributed to the department chairs, who will allocate them and ensure that they are used to advance medical education. To this end, Martin is asking the department chairs to submit a plan to his office that outlines how they will use the additional funding. In addition to increasing the payout, the University is allowing for greater flexibility in how the baseline endowment funds for clinical professorships are used. Professors may use their funds as discretionary accounts rather than to pay their salary. This change will free up 20 percent of funds that were used to pay for Harvard fringe benefits, which may not have been needed. These discretionary funds must be used in accordance with the original endowment terms and need to support academic activities. The final component of the University's financial package is a significant increase in clinical departmental baseline allocations in academic year 2000. "This increase in endowment payout has given us a unique opportunity to solidify our commitment to medical education at a time when traditional funding sources are being cut back," Martin says. "We hope that these new funds and flexibility will bring about very tangible relief to the financial pressures facing Harvard's hospitals, academic departments, and faculty." —Bill Schaller |
