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Build Anchor Hospital To Lift USF, Local Economy

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 21, 2009

Building a campus hospital may be a tough sell in this economic environment, but USF Health Sciences Vice President Stephen Klasko is campaigning aggressively for a 100-bed hospital with specialty areas in diabetes and neuroscience.

It is a campaign that deserves the community's support.

Klasko rightly believes the university needs a hospital or hospitals with which it is identified if USF Health is to be a leader in the healthcare transformation that's on its way.

USF physicians and medical students work at Tampa General, All Children's, Moffitt Cancer Center and other area hospitals, but those hospitals are not known for their associations with the university.

So Klasko and USF President Judy Genshaft, with the approval of the USF Board of Trustees, are wisely moving forward, seeking both a capital and operational partner to help build and run the hospital.

They've hired Caine Brothers, health care capital advisers and investment bankers, to advise them on how to evaluate partnership offers.

The university has yet to file a certificate of need with the state spelling out the costs and benefits of the campus hospital or what it would mean to other hospitals in the region.

But it's important to remember that a key to the area's economic success is leveraging the assets of USF Health, the Byrd Alzheimer's Center and Moffitt as the hub of a life sciences initiative.

Forging a partnership and growing the medical center on campus is critical to the growth of USF Health, which in turn will attract medical-related businesses and generate high-paying jobs throughout the Tampa Bay area.

USF already has a quality medical school as well as excellent colleges of nursing and public health, and in 2011 a college of pharmacy is scheduled to open.

The university has also entered into a partnership with Lehigh Valley Health Network to develop new and innovative ways to train doctors. And Georgetown University Medical Center is interested in partnering with USF, especially in neurosciences.

Each of these programs would be enhanced by an anchor hospital, which would also be a money-maker for the university.

And although the university has been successful luring world-class faculty members to the medical school without a hospital, they came to USF with the expectation that an in-patient hospital would eventually be part of the medical complex. If one is not built, it's quite possible they will leave and take their grant money and research projects with them.

So the challenge now is for university leadership to keep up the momentum.

There may be some resistance to building a campus hospital from area hospitals, but USF's intention is not to create competition with community hospitals but to grow USF Health as a training facility and research center.

As Klasko told the USF Board of Trustees last month, "It's either going to be USF leading the health care system ... or we're going to be an afterthought."

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