The Academic Council discussed on Thursday afternoon the creation of a new Board of Trustees committee which will deal with the business and financial aspects of the Medical Center.
The Committee for the Duke University Health System will give the University greater flexibility in designing Medical Center policies and more effectiveness in dealing with the changing scene of health care in the United States, said Dr. Ralph Snyderman, chancellor for health affairs. Snyderman said he hopes the Medical Center will be able to take a novel approach to health-care management. "We want to go beyond the cookie-cutter approach to managed care," he said.
President Nan Keohane added that the new committee will allow the Board to be better informed in considering Medical Center issues. The creation of the committee is significant, Keohane said, because the Medical Center's role in the larger health-care system is expanding and becoming more complex.
According to the draft of the policy presented to the Academic Council, the new committee shall be composed of at least 13 members. The vice chair of the Board will chair the committee, while other members of the committee will include the chair of the Board, other members of the Board's Executive Committee, the president and the chancellor for health affairs. Outside professionals with experience in health-care management will also voluntarily advise the committee.
Some faculty members voiced concern about faculty appointments to the committee. The draft of the policy that the Academic Council reviewed stated that the chancellor for health affairs, in consultation with the president and the chair of the Board, would recommend one faculty member to the Board to serve on the committee.
Edward Tiryakian, professor of sociology, proposed an amendment, which was later approved, that the faculty member of the committee should be recommended to the Board by the president in consultation with the Executive Committee of Academic Council.
"There should be a voice from the faculty side," Tiryakian said. When the plan is presented to the Board, board members may consider both the original plan and the amendment.
The Academic Council will vote on its final recommendation to the Board on Dec. 7., and the Board will vote on the plan on Dec. 8 and 9. Until its meeting in December, the Academic Council may consider alternative views in formulating its final recommendation to the Board, said James Siedow, professor of botany and chair of the council.
The council also felt a change was needed in the relative influence that the president and chancellor have in making these recommendations. The original version of the policy stated that the chancellor for health affairs should make the recommendations to the Board in consultation with the president. Some members of the faculty said that the roles of the two positions should be reversed so that the president would make these recommendations in consultation with the chancellor.
"It's important that we put more responsibility with the president," said Jim Cox, a professor in the law school.
IN OTHER BUSINESS: The Academic Council unanimously reelected Carl Anderson, professor emeritus of English, to a fifth two-year term as faculty ombudsman, the official who handles complaints voiced to the council.
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