The University of Toledo Medical Center will be tasked with providing accessible, quality care while keeping an eye on cost in response to national health-care reform, said Michele Wheatly, a candidate for UT president.
Ms. Wheatly addressed about 75 health education staff, clinicians, and others today at the Health Science Campus in the second of two public forums to take place during her multi-day visit to Toledo.
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She is the first of three finalists seeking the presidency to visit and will conclude her trip today with a closed-door exit interview with the board of trustees.
She tailored some of her remarks today to correspond with the challenges and opportunities at the former Medical College of Ohio, which merged with UT in 2006.
Ms. Wheatly said UTMC must focus on access and quality care as well as cost amid the changing health-care environment ushered in by the Affordable Care Act.
“We are going to have a real change in how reimbursements are made in the clinical enterprise,” she said, referencing a shift away from patient volume and a growing emphasis on patient satisfaction and reducing the number of patients readmitted into the hospital.
As a result, Ms. Wheatly said it makes sense for UTMC to pursue joint partnerships with larger, regional providers.
With Medicaid expansion, the hospital can expect to treat more impoverished patients with complicated health histories.
“A lot of the people that come to an academic health center have the more involved situations. They are often people living in poverty, and poverty is associated with a certain category and groupings of diseases,” she said. “It’s going to be even harder for us to be able to spread our resources.”
Ms. Wheatly, the former West Virginia University provost who has an academic background in biology and physiology, underscored her understanding of medical colleges and clinical operations, saying she worked closely with leaders at WVU’s Health Sciences Center.
As a young student, she said some expected her to obtain a medical degree, but watching her mother battle and then succumb to breast cancer when Ms. Wheatly was 16 made her too emotionally “raw” to pursue a medical profession.
In answers to audience questions, Ms. Wheatly affirmed her commitment to research and said universities should provide faculty with the infrastructure, time, and equipment needed to be successful. She also said that given the rising expense associated with research, that an institution the size of UT should identify its areas of strength and develop niche programs for research efforts.
Ms. Wheatly spent Thursday meeting with university faculty, staff, and students; she addressed about 200 people at her first forum, held on the main campus and streamed online. She said today that Thursday’s forum was viewed online by about 1,000 people.
The other two candidates, Christopher Howard, president of the private Hampden-Sydney College, and Sharon Gaber, University of Arkansas provost, will come to Toledo next week. Each will participate in similar forums.
Mr. Howard is next up to meet members of the university community. He will participate in a 1:30 p.m. forum Monday at University Hall on the main campus.
First Published February 20, 2015, 4:51 p.m.
