Letter of July 23, 1996 from MFA Executive Board

6(7)/23/96

Dear Dean Van der Meulen:

The Executive Board of the Medical Faculty Assembly, on hearing of the action of the University Administration in terminating the funding of 29 senior county physicians in the LAC+USC Medical Center, met with you on July 15th to discuss this issue. Because of the serious consequences of this action, we feel we must state our concerns now although necessary and valuable pieces of information are still not available.

1) This decision was implemented without faculty input and participation. We understand that the University, in the face of rejected proposals and time constraints was forced to make a last minute decision. We appreciate the financial deadlines that the Administration was facing and sympathize with the pressures involved. However, the Budget Advisory Committee was never asked to view this part of the budget and so never gave input.

2) The impact of this decision on the Mission of the School of Medicine was not carefully considered prior to implementation of this action. The clinical mission of the LAC+USC Medical Center will be compromised since senior and experienced full-time clinical faculty at the Medical Center have received letters. There is a legitimate question of who will fill the functions of these full-time physicians if they are cascaded from the Medical Center. We are concerned that the educational mission of the School has been weakened as many of these physicians teach in the School of Medicine and in the residency training programs of the Medical Center. The research mission will likely also be impacted as we understand that several of these physicians hold large grants with research in progress.

3) We are concerned about the future impact of this action on the negotiations of the School with the County on the CPSA contract. Given the vital importance of this contract to the School, we endorse total accountability for the CPSA dollars and the positions funded through this contract. Additionally, the Association of County Physicians has expressed a profound concern that a cascade of these senior physicians could destabilize the whole County Health Care system. Surely the County and the University need to work together to prevent the effect of such an action.

For the above reasons, we ask that the decision of June 29th to discontinue funding for 29 County physicians be rescinded.

For there to be true faculty input and development of a plan to address the financial concerns of the School of Medicine, the faculty must have reliable information. Thus there must be faculty participation in a financial process that involves a full accounting of the CPSA funds. We feel that we can work with you to solve the financial problems facing the School of Medicine.

Sincerely;