December 1, 2008

Faculty Layoffs at Galveston Medical School Spark Complaints

Tenured professors are among the 127 faculty members being laid off by the University of Texas Medical Branch, in Galveston, in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike, The Daily News, a local newspaper, reports. In all, the medical school laid off more than 3,000 people, most of whom are staff members of the teaching hospital.

The Texas Faculty Association has protested the layoffs, which it says include the current and former presidents of the medical school’s faculty senate. The association says tenured and tenure-track faculty members were cut at twice the rate of nontenured faculty members.

The faculty group outlined its complaints in a blog posting. The faculty members receiving pink slips, effective at the end of the academic year, include well-known surgeons, experts in molecular medicine, and researchers who study infectious diseases, the Galveston newspaper reports. It received the list after submitting a request through the Texas Public Information Act.

Texas health-care experts are also concerned about the impact that the drastic reduction in the medical school’s teaching hospital will have on the care of indigent and uninsured patients, the Associated Press reports. The hospital is being scaled back from 550 to 200 beds because of the widespread destruction Ike caused when it slammed into the Gulf Coast in September. —Katherine Mangan

Comments

1. I find it difficult to believe that Texas state medical officials are concerned about the layoffs, but have done nothing to stop it. To me it makes more sense to keep a hospital fully staffed and prepare for potential growth in the area. In an time when faculty are leaving universities to go to the private sector to make more money or other reasons, this makes absolutely no sense. It looks like a money grab from administration at the school. Texas…go figure.

   — Mark    Dec 1, 03:51 PM    #

2. University of Texas System and state officials are in a difficult position here. Galveston was one of the four largest cities in the state when UTMB was founded in the 1890s, but the city was flattened in the hurricane of 1900 and never really recovered its stature. In the past century the city has experienced the slowest growth of the 35 largest cities in the state, and UTMB has found itself not only at risk on a barrier island but also eclipsed by the vast Texas Medical Center, 45 miles away in Houston. Why should public funds be used to rebuild in Galveston when, for example, rapidly-growing Austin lacks an academic medical center?

   — Look at the data first    Dec 1, 05:44 PM    #

3. What has this got to do with it being in Texas? No other state has idiots in it? No one else could be greedy? No one else has lazy tenured professors? No one else has to make choices between how to rebuild and how to pay its staff? Mark, you must be one of those good for nothing tenured profs.

   — Captain America    Dec 1, 05:45 PM    #

4. In addition, Austin recently had 700 or so acres become available when Mueller airport moved. I had thought there was supposed to be a medical school presence on that land as part of the political manipilations. I worked out of state for a year, and suddenly there is Home Depot and traffic, not parks and medical school.

   — aubrey mcintosh    Dec 1, 05:53 PM    #

5. No one likes losing their job, including me when I’ve had it happen. That said, if anyone actually went to Galveston and saw the amount of destruction that Ike wrought, they would actually be suprised that the hospital is still open at all. Comments like “keeping it fully staffed in preparation for future growth” demonstrate a total lack of knowledge of just how much of the area was destroyed. Ike may not be in the news anymore, but its effects are still being felt in Galveston.

   — Parks    Dec 1, 10:58 PM    #

6. Mark’s comment “keep a hospital fully staffed and prepare for potential growth in the area” clearly shows he has no clue regarding the Galveston economy or the devastation caused by the hurricane. There is little potential for real growth on the island.

   UTMB was (and I emphasize “was”) the tertiary referral hospital for the state for many years. But anti-dumping laws enacted in the 1980s aimed at curbing unsafe and unethical patient transfers also stopped a majority of the statewide referrals. UTMB no longer had a statewide catchment basin for patients, it was now relegated to Galveston county. It has expanded its internal referral base over the years, but it has had an unnecessarily large presence on the island for at least 20 years now. And it is only 45 miles from the Texas Medical Center with 2 medical schools, a dental school, 2 pharmacy schools at least 2 nursing schools and countless allied health programs which makes UTMB geographically disadvantaged; no one would build a medical school in Galveston now.

   It is unfortunate that faculty have to be let go, but the reality is that tenured faculty at a medical school cost money, real money. Real money that can be used other places.

   — Austinite    Dec 2, 08:10 AM    #

7. Most of the tenured faculty being laid off are clinicians who will not have trouble finding positions elsewhere. Many of the basic science faculty there are still unable to do any work owing to damage from Ike and it is not at all clear when or if that will change. The other comments (except for Mark’s) are all correct and are from knowledgeable people. With the exception of the BCL4 facility, most of that medical school should probably be moved, Austin being the most reasonable place to put it. As for “future growth in the area”, let’s hope not. It’s probably not a good idea to have high development on sandy barrier islands.

   — Baal    Dec 2, 09:47 AM    #

8. I hate seeing the 127 faculty members go. Also remember, though, that the other 2,800 folks let go are a lot less likely to have other jobs waiting (with the exception of the registered nurses) and will not be paid through the end of the fiscal year like the tenured faculty will be. Additionally, this area is losing one of the top-ranked trauma centers in the nation. Houston is only 45 miles away, but if you’ve ever seen Houston traffic, that 45 miles can take well over an hour to traverse. Other area hospitals aren’t too keen on having to take in the indigent patients normally seen at UTMB, either. It’s a tragedy any way you look at it.

   — LeAnne    Dec 2, 02:13 PM    #

9. I thought tenured meant that you couldn’t be laid off?

   — Davis    Dec 2, 07:03 PM    #

10. Did you know unemployment pays up to $400.00 per week, not to exceed $10,000.00 per – year. Have you ever paid hugh insurance premiums, only to have them deny payment, Have you ever evacuated patients to safety putting your own life at risk, to be informed when you return to work you are to be fired. . It is very simple to make pompous statements when you are living securely in your home surrounded by memories and comforts because a natural disaster did not sweep your life and home away. Some things are right some things are wrong. It was wrong for Gov. Perry not the call an emergency legislative meeting, it was wrong for the UT Board of regents who are appointed by Gov. Perry not to have an open forum about UTMB. IKE should not be used to decided the future of UTMB. Walk in the other person’s shoes, before spouting such comments that show not heart. .

    — Amy -    Dec 2, 07:11 PM    #

11. There were financial problems at UTMB before Ike. Right or wrong the storm has just allowed the administration to make the cuts they wanted to make all along. The financial problems stem from the State taking the reimbursements for indigent care that UTMB is entitled to and then cutting the institution’s budget. Financially strapped patents from the surrounding counties and the Rio Grande Valley have been huge drain on UTMB. There is a serious need for Galveston and the surrounding counties to form a hospital district. Without that, any assistance from the State will just be a stop-gap measure.

    As for tenure in the UT system, the Interim Chancellor, Ken Shine, is on record that there is no link between tenure and salary! So what does tenure mean in the UT system?

    Moving UTMB to Austin is a very reasonable idea. The problem is the community leaders in Austin want the UT system’s golden child, UT Southwestern, to run their medial school.

    — Actually on the Island    Dec 2, 08:01 PM    #

12. I urge all readers to consult the Texas Faculty Associate blog- they commissioned an analysis of UTMB’s financial statements and found that the institution was actually breaking even, despite the adminstration’s statements to the contrary.
    That being said, the lack of a local tax district has politically hurt UTMB.

    It is the duty of the government, not UT to see that there is a workable transition for UTMB to a safer location. And I assure you that our profs, tenured and untenured were talented hardworking people. It is important to see the larger issues here.
    Houston medical centers do not want to serve uninsured patients and a democratic government has an obligation to fight those forces that would take our humanity from us.

    — On the island also    Dec 2, 10:47 PM    #

13. Despite the proximity of Houston, UTMB has never had any problem filling beds. That’s because Texas has the highest percentage of uninsured people in the nation. Unfortunately the state legislature does not see funding care for the uninsured as a priority. With the bed reduction, comes the elimination of UTMB’s level 1 trauma center. The Houston/Galveston area now has two, it should have 4. This problem has many facets and it’s an over simplification to just blame one party.
    I keep hearing the argument that UTMB should be moved because of its vulnerable location. The rising water that inundated the island was a hundred year weather event. There was no talk of relocation when Tropical Storm Allison flooded the Houston Medical Center causing a great deal more damage to multiple hospitals. There was immediate support from the state and local government to repair and “hardened” vital equipment so that those vulnerabilities could be reduced.
    I hope the recently filed lawsuit will shed some light on the Regents’ true motivation and the “objective” criteria used to layoff faculty.

    — GalvestonRN    Dec 3, 09:33 AM    #

14. Maybe UTMB can “go to school” (pun intended) on LSUHSC. The parallels to what is happening in Galvesto and what happened\is happening in New orleans are striking, including layoffs, routing of students elsewhere, cruise ships for housing, consideration of an alternate site for relocating, opening of a downsized hospital to serve the indigent, and disillusioned tenured faculty who have been dismissed.

    — ronny @ LSUHSC    Dec 3, 12:13 PM    #

15. When you say not to rebuild on the island since it’ll get flooded again, then why would we want to rebuild San Francisco and surrounding communities when the next big earthquake hits? Earthquakes will continue to plague that part of the region too. What if Austin experiences a prolonged drought, and the vast forests within Austin city limits becomes a conflagaration similar to Oakland, CA in 1991? We constantly live at risk of natural disasters regardless of where we reside. Galveston unfortunately had a 100 year flood from the hurricane that made perfect landfall. Did UTMB flood when the entire TMC in Houston flooded in 2001?

    UTMB has been the dumping ground of Ben Taub, LBJ, and Hermann Memorial for years. Has anyone actually worked in those ERs and seen the waits? If UTMB’s ER had long waits too, then imagine what they are now. The UT system is dismantling UTMB without transparency and in utter secrecy. If they would be open and let the public (who do fund the UT System) know what the situation really is, I think that this uproar wouldn’t be as bad. And for those who think that Austin should have a medical school, I think that it should have one but not at the expense of another one established as the oldest west of the Mississippi. There is a chronic shortage of doctors and nurses since we as a society believe that life is valuable even if means at someone else’s expense. I wouldn’t be saying so unless you have given and made life or death decisions as a doctor.

    — New islander    Dec 3, 06:48 PM    #

16. Previous posters are correct, the Houston Medical Center was re-enforced after TS Allison flooded it, San Francisco re-enforces its hospitals for earthquakes, and Austin could one day be a wasteland (I lived there and remember drought warnings in the area). What’s more, a building that was designed to withstand at least a Level 4 Hurricane, the new Galveston National Laboratory, actually, shockingly, withstood the storm (with nothing more than a wet carpet). And today Dr. Callendar, the President of UTMB, swore up and down that the goal is to rebuild the campus to withstand future flooding.

    So it’s really down to the decisions that are made higher up, namely the Board of Regents that doesn’t want to put any money into supporting the original medical school charter of teaching and serving the poor.

    The biggest loser is going to be the state of Texas and its citizens, though. UTMB ranked high in medical care (ie, they just received a prestigious award for being one of the Top Level 1 trauma centers in the country… kinda sad considering so many of the ER faculty and surgeons were just fired last week. They have also ranked higher than nearly every hospital in Houston, but one, when it comes to how quickly they address heart attacks and save lives).

    Additionally, as I have gone through medical training, I can say one big thing: I would trust my life more to a teaching hospital/ indigent care facility than I would to a private hospital. In private hospitals, it’s the attendings that make most of the decisions, and the residents walk out after 3+ years of rarely making a medical decision (and thus barely learning anything). At UTMB, the system is set up so that multiple levels of doctors make decisions (the residents do most of the care, but most of the attendings I’ve worked with are available for overseeing and teaching). You learn by doing (that’s why it’s called “practicing” medicine, NOT “watch your attending practice medicine”). Certainly all residents are humans, and mistakes are made, but I would still trust UTMB docs over just about any private hospital in Texas.

    As one doc put it at the UTMB Town Hall Meeting, the Board of Regents and UTMB administration “took a hatchet to the problems, when a scalpel would have been more appropriate.” Sure, Galveston needs a hospital district, Texas needs an adequately funded disaster relief-fund, and FEMA needs to clean up its act, but the citizens of Texas NEED UTMB to continue its mission. And UTMB needs more support from its miserly, shortsided administrators (whose salaries could pay for several of those tenured faculty to come back) and regents. Thus, the lawmakers are just about our only hope when it comes to making certain the UT System does the right thing.

    — UTMB-Insider    Dec 5, 01:27 AM    #

17. I am an executive search consultant and have several key positions I’m looking to fill. One is for a Chief of Medicine at a Top100 hospital in PA; the other is for a Regional Medical Director in Oncology, for another highly regarded, well known institution in PA. These are fantastic opportunities for physician leaders and I’d be happy to put people back to work.
    I can be reached at cfreedman@tylerandco.com. Thank you!!!

    — Cheryl Freedman    Dec 6, 09:31 AM    #

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