Trustees Restructure Governance

Johns Hopkins Medicine To Serve Best Interests Of Hospital, Medical School

     Trustees of The Johns Hopkins University and the Johns
Hopkins Health System have approved a new governance structure
that retains separate leadership and corporate structures for the
health system and the university's School of Medicine but
reorganizes them to integrate the medical enterprises in a more
systematic way.

     "This is designed to make one of the nation's pre-eminent
academic medical centers more responsive to rapidly changing
conditions in the health care arena," said Morris W. Offit,
chairman of the university's board of trustees. "It is our
responsibility as trustees to ensure that Johns Hopkins Medicine
is capable of acting quickly and decisively in a very dynamic
marketplace, while maintaining its leadership standing in all of
its core missions of education, research and patient care."

     The new structure will give some added responsibilities to
the president of the university and to physician department
directors, who share appointments in the School of Medicine and
The Johns Hopkins Hospital. The revised organization plan also
calls for the dean of the School of Medicine and the president of
the Johns Hopkins Hospital and Health System to locate their
offices together and to share some staff functions at a site yet
to be determined.

     The reorganization plans--approved in separate meetings of
the health system and university trustees on Monday, June 19--
followed four months of intense study by a 10-member joint
trustee committee, which made a set of unanimous recommendations
to the two parent bodies. The board resolutions did not specify
when the changes would go into effect, but they are expected to
be implemented swiftly.

     Key to the new governance structure is the creation of an
Office of Johns Hopkins Medicine, which will report to a new
10-member joint trustees board of Johns Hopkins Medicine, with
wide-ranging responsibilities for the Johns Hopkins medical
enterprises, including strategic planning and development,
contracting, joint budgeting, and capital, facilities, and
personnel planning.

     The Office of Johns Hopkins Medicine will consist of the
president of the university, the president of the hospital and
health system, the dean of the School of Medicine, the executive
vice president of the health system, the CEO of Johns Hopkins
HealthCare LLC and four physician departmental directors--three
from clinical departments and one from a basic science department
in the School of Medicine--to be appointed by the board of Johns
Hopkins Medicine.

     The president of the university will chair the Office of
Johns Hopkins Medicine and will serve as an ex officio,
non-voting member of the board of Johns Hopkins Medicine.

     The Johns Hopkins Hospital and University have existed as
separate corporations since their respective charters in 1867.
They work together, however, in an unincorporated partnership
called Johns Hopkins Medicine, whose various arms include a joint
trustee policy committee and a management group composed of the
leadership of Johns Hopkins Medicine.

     "The trustees of the hospital and health system would like
to make it clear that we are building on past and present
achievements," said George L. Bunting Jr., chairman of the health
system's board of trustees. "We expect this year to have a record
number of patient discharges and record revenues as well as a
positive bottom line. We intend to build on such momentum, and,
by more closely integrating the strengths of the university and
the health system, we are positioning Johns Hopkins Medicine to
continue its leadership role in the delivery of health services."

     The new structure is expected to tie together the hospital,
School of Medicine and university more closely than at any time
since the hospital and university shared the same president, a
practice that was discontinued in 1983.

     Both Offit and Bunting emphasized their interest in
continuing the work of Johns Hopkins HealthCare LLC, a physicians
service organization formed jointly by the School of Medicine and
health system last year to coordinate Johns Hopkins' contractual
relationships with managed care organizations and to build
networks and alliances with physicians and other health care
organizations.

     On June 20, employees packed Hurd Hall in East Baltimore to
hear interim president Daniel Nathans, hospital and health system
president James Block and School of Medicine dean Michael Johns
reinforce the goals of Johns Hopkins Medicine and put its
development into context.

     Johns concluded the meeting, telling the audience, "I think
you ought to take off your Johns Hopkins Hospital hat, take off
your School of Medicine hat and put on your Johns Hopkins
Medicine hat, and you're going to do a lot better looking ahead
at this organization."