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Part III
UT Medical Center Hospital & UT Academics
LindaMarie Rouillard, UT-AAUP Executive Board
Donald K. Wedding, UT-AAUP Executive Board
As reported in UT-AAUP Newsletters #94 and #95, The University of Toledo Medical Center hospital (UTMC) has been rated by Consumers Reports as the lowest of 107 Ohio hospitals in hospital safety.
The Jacobs Administration has criticized the Consumer Reports ratings and has countered with hospital rankings published by U.S. News & World Report. President Lloyd Jacobs has argued that UTMC is ranked the best hospital in the area. However the U.S. News & World Report hospital rankings are based on high performing specialties. Table I lists six Toledo hospitals ranked by specialty with UTMC listed as #1 with 7 specialties.
TABLE I
Toledo Hospitals
Rankings by Specialty
|
Ranking
|
Hospital
|
High Performing Specialties
|
Other
Specialties
| |
1.
|
UTMC
|
7
|
4
| |
2.
|
Mercy St. Vincent
|
6
|
6
| |
3.
|
Toledo Hospital
|
5
|
7
| |
4.
|
Mercy St. Anne
|
4
|
0
| |
5.
|
Mercy St. Charles
|
3
|
5
| |
6.
|
St. Luke's
|
1
|
9
|
Source: U.S. News & World Report.
Data reprinted with written permission from U.S. News & World Report.
U.S. News and World Report used Medicare data from 2007-2009 to rate the high performing specialty areas of each hospital. Table II shows a comparison of UTMC with other university systems and with Cleveland Clinic.
TABLE II
Comparisons
|
|
ENT
|
Geriatrics
|
Nephrology
|
Neurology and
Neurosurgery
|
Orthopedic
|
Pulmonary
|
Urology
| |
UTMC
|
35.3
|
24.9
|
34.4
|
29.6
|
25.5
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28.3
|
36.7
| |
OSU
|
56.3
|
29
|
43
|
37.1
|
32.8
|
37.1
|
40.1
| |
UM
|
65.9
|
54.4
|
49.2
|
43.2
|
37.5
|
49.7
|
54.1
| |
Cleveland Clinic
|
71.8
|
65.9
|
98.1
|
82.6
|
71.3
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82.4
|
96.9
|
Source: U.S. News & World Report.
Data reprinted with written permission from U.S. News & World Report
Although not shown, the other Toledo hospitals have specialty rankings very close to UTMC. Mercy St. Anne Hospital outranked UTMC in Neurology and Neurosurgery with a score of 31.8.
Cancer, gastroenterology, diabetes and endocrinology services , and gynecology at UTMC did NOT receive mention in these rankings. Will President Jacobs therefore stop investing resources in these services? Will he close these medical units? No, of course not, and he should not.
The Jacobs Administration spins hospital ranking statistics differently than the way it spins academic statistics. UT academic programs that cannot demonstrate outstanding national ratings or some magic number of students are immediately threatened with closure or suffocation through decreased funding. Academic programs outside of STEM in fields that do not generate wads of revenue or publicity are deemed expendable. Research that does not contribute to revenue generation is dismissed as worthless.
The academic enterprise budgets at the Bancroft Campus are being cut while resources are flowed to UTMC. Those of us working on the Bancroft campus may not be saving lives, but we shape lives. We don't do brain surgery, but we shape minds. We help our students construct lives worth living. They need marketable skills and life skills which include both the arts and the sciences.
We are not criticizing the dedicated UTMC nurses, physicians, and staff. They are not responsible for the administrative decisions and policies regarding staffing levels or hiring which have tremendous consequences for patient care and safety. They are not responsible for the diversion of resources from academics to UTMC.
We are criticizing the Jacobs Administration for its management of UTMC and its downsizing of academic budgets on the Bancroft campus. We are criticizing the UT Board of Trustees which has delegated all control to Lloyd Jacobs. The Board of Trustees has gone to sleep, waking up only to rubber stamp whatever Jacobs brings to them. The University of Toledo and UTMC have many problems, but all is well with the UT Board of Trustees so long as Jacobs tells them all is well. It gives full faith and credit to whatever Jacobs and his administrators tell them. The Board of Trustees is not meeting its fiduciary responsibility to the State of Ohio and its taxpayers.
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