I have written a number of previous notes about the entrepreneurship of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) (links here). I am forced to return to this topic once more today by some news that has just come to my attention. Please indulge me -- I just can't help myself. Here is the link to the recent story that caught my attention and below is an excerpt from it (boldface emphasis mine):
The University of Nevada at Las Vegas] wants the 2007 Legislature to pony up more than $200 million toward construction associated with the Health Sciences Center, so it needs public support....For one thing, most people still think the project is going to be similar to the proposal made by the University of Pittsburgh in 2004. The University of Pittsburgh concept was to create an academic medical center in downtown Las Vegas where patients could receive medical care and students could be trained. But hospitals, university officials and local leaders, fearful of competition and the fact that they wouldn't have control over the project, discouraged that and said they could accomplish the same goal with existing resources.
Here is an article from August 2005 confirming the fact that UPMC wants to develop an academic medical center in Las Vegas:
The [University of Nevada at Las Vegas] and [Las Vegas] officials have been in negotiations with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, also known as UPMC, for months to jointly build and operate the training and research center...[A representative of a local hospital] emphasized that Nevada already has the medical expertise to strengthen and expand the University of Nevada School of Medicine and does not need outside help.
I understand that prestigious clinics like Cleveland Clinic and Mayo Clinic have developed branches of their prestigious hospitals in Florida and Arizona. However, I believe that academic medical centers constitute a special case and that it is questionable behavior for them to create distant clones of themselves.
It seems obvious to me that UPMC, flush with cash, is seeking to extend its reach into a booming city but one with a preexisting and established medical school (link here). Frankly, I am surprised that city and state officials have let this situation progress this far. However, this may also reflect the city's propensity to place its bets on "winners" and perhaps they don't place their own medical school in this category. Or perhaps they want to motivate their local institution to achieve a higher profile.
There is one compelling reason, however, for UPMC not to establish an academic medical center in Las Vegas. One of the basic tenets of a research institution is that it will seek to publish the results of any research that is successfully completed there. Such a goal clearly cannot be accomplished in Las Vegas because, as we all know, the mantra of this city is -- What happens here, stays here (link here).
Comments