Baylor College of Medicine/Rice University/Methodist Hospital

[drfunktacular]

Rice-Baylor merger talks still not close

Anybody have any insider info or comment on the Rice-BCM goings-on? I'd be especially interested to hear the perspectives of Danbo and aPD about what this will mean for the IM residency program. All that talk about laying off support staff and doctors makes me think it may have a non-trivial impact on resident education...

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[dragonfly99]

What I want to know is what caused Baylor med school to dissolve its relationships with Methodist and Episcopal? It seems like that was the kiss of death for the med school financially and in terms of clinical education. At least it was a bad, bad thing. I hope Baylor makes it b/c it would be sad to see such a great medical school go down...

 

[drfunktacular]

What I want to know is what caused Baylor med school to dissolve its relationships with Methodist and Episcopal? It seems like that was the kiss of death for the med school financially and in terms of clinical education. At least it was a bad, bad thing. I hope Baylor makes it b/c it would be sad to see such a great medical school go down...

I think the impetus was disagreement as to how fees should be split for care delivered by BCM docs at Methodist. Once that disagreement got built up, the board of trustees (as referenced in that article) decided that BCM should run its own clinical enterprise in addition to research and education components, and said adios. Of course, in hindsight that was a potentially catastrophic decision.

Also I'm not clear on the status of the arrangement between BCM and St. Luke's. In that article they make it sound as though they dissolved all relations, but I know that the BCM residents still rotate on the St. Luke's services.

ALSO, BCM students and residents still run the services at Ben Taub General Hospital (the Harris County referral hospital) and the VA (which is enormous and has the full complement of services--24 hour PET/CT, even). So the trainees IMHO still receive excellent and enormous clinical exposure. It's just hard to say whether the faculty and staff remaining at those sites will stay up to snuff.

 

[dragonfly99]

Yeah I know some of the fellows still rotate at Episcopal also.

 

[Danbo1957]

The reality is that the BCM IM residency program has not been greatly changed by financial and institutional board room shakeups.

Remember, all residencies at Baylor College of Medicine are titled, "Affiliated Hospitals Residency Program". BCM residents (and fellows) will continue to rotate through St Luke's and other Texas Medical Center facilities - the hospitals need them. Also, half of St. Luke's staff physicians are affiliated with BCM in some way.

A major reason that BCM halted construction of the new hospital is that if there were to be a merger, Rice would not run a hospital in house, they want the Affiliated Hospital system to continue (like Harvard). The building is to be finished externally, and stay as a shell for now.

There are real issues to be delt with before BCM and Rice unite, but I do believe this: BCM and Rice will complete a merger - every indication by those (at both institutions) that I have talked to state that they will.

 

[Cards21aceking]

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[ResidentMD]

Bump. Anyone w/ any updates on this issue?

I read somewhere that the merger may come through this year....(and to the point Methodist may join back -though I see that being a bit difficult considering it is affiliated to Cornell now; unless Methodist allows two residency programs in it a la NY Presbyterian kind of thing) - anyone with more details and/or hard data on this issue?

 

[nickster]

Will all this confusion effect the applicant pool; both quality and quanity?

 

[drfunktacular]

I read somewhere that the merger may come through this year....(and to the point Methodist may join back -though I see that being a bit difficult considering it is affiliated to Cornell now; unless Methodist allows two residency programs in it a la NY Presbyterian kind of thing) - anyone with more details and/or hard data on this issue?

According to people who know, this will happen sooner or later, but things must proceed at the appropriate bureaucratic pace. I dunno about Methodist returning to the fold immediately, though.

Will all this confusion effect the applicant pool; both quality and quanity?

It shouldn't but probably will because people who don't know any better read too much into these things.