State Sen. Theresa Fedor on Saturday called on the dean of the University of Toledo College of Medicine and Life Sciences to resign as the future of the university's medical center remains uncertain.
Ms. Fedor, a Toledo Democrat and member of the Save UTMC Coalition, wrote to Dr. Christoper Cooper, a cardiologist who has led the college since 2014, on June 19 asking him to step down as both dean and chair of the University of Toledo Physicians Board.
The University of Toledo Medical Center, formerly the Medical College of Ohio Hospital, the object of a tug-of-war between the university, which argues the medical center is financially unsustainable, and community members who don't want to see it diminished.
"During your tenure, the University of Toledo Medical Center (UTMC) has seen a mass exodus of doctors, patients, programs, and profits," Ms. Fedor wrote. "Your most recent faculty evaluation shows many lack of confidence in your leadership and are frustrated by the secrecy surrounding your decision-making, especially on matters involving the academic affiliation agreement between ProMedica and the University of Toledo (UT) for the UT College of Medicine and Life Sciences (COMLS)."
According to ProMedica’s website, Dr. Cooper, also the executive vice president for clinical affairs, “oversees all aspects of clinical care, clinical research and medical student education” at the university.
During a Saturday rally at the university's main campus, Ms. Fedor called on its board of trustees to restore the medical center’s solvency, renegotiate its affiliation agreement with ProMedica, and to reject all proposals from other health providers to take over operations.
"University board of trustees: do your job for the community, not for privateers. Do the right thing," Ms. Fedor said. "Put our medical college back together."
She said that Dr. Cooper, who helped write a 2015 agreement between the university and ProMedica that critics argue has shifted services away from the South Toledo medical center, "destroyed UTMC hospital, almost single-handedly." The university maintains the agreement has helped create a better pipeline from the university to the field for healthcare providers in northwest Ohio.
"You crafted the affiliation agreement and are overseeing its implementation," Ms. Fedor wrote to Dr. Cooper. "Therefore, you are largely responsible for how it has benefited ProMedica at the expense of UTMC and the surrounding communities."
In a letter on Saturday, Dr. Cooper wrote, “The Academic Affiliation Agreement signed in 2015 was critical to safeguard and grow our medical education programs, retain highly qualified and much-needed medical professionals in our region and elevate the stature of Toledo as a strong academic medical community. It was the result of a thorough and deliberate process to grow and increase the national stature of UToledo’s College of Medicine and Life Sciences.”
He said that since then, the college and medical center have increased its staff and capacity, and the number of students applying to the college, and expanded its residency programs.
“It is important to clarify that the College of Medicine and Life Sciences is not a hospital, it is a medical college,” he wrote. “Despite what some might propose, our college’s faculty and learners have always been active outside our University’s hospital in other clinics, hospitals and health systems across our region since our inception as the Medical College of Ohio.”
The university also noted the hospital is managed by UTMC CEO Rick Swaine.
State and local representatives, union leaders, and South Toledo residents continued their calls for the university to save the medical center and reject a proposal from ProMedica, the region's largest health provider, to take over its teaching hospital.
"We don't need to sell it. We don't need to lease it out. We don't need anybody to manage it, especially the group that put the demise and destruction together. We cannot trust ProMedica," Ms. Fedor said.
ProMedica said earlier this month that its involvement would allow UTMC to become financially sustainable. But community members aren't convinced it won't result in medical services leaving South Toledo.
Former Toledo Mayor Carty Finkbeiner asked people concerned about UTMC to keep the pressure dialed up.
"Use your voice to make yourself heard at your next block watch meeting and your next community meeting," he said. "The average citizen is on our side."
First Published June 20, 2020, 8:45 p.m.
