$100
Million Gift
to Enhance Penn Medicine
The
Philadelphia Health Care Trust (PHCT) and the University, have
announced an agreement to establish a $100 million endowment by
PHCT to support the patient care, research and education programs
of Penn Medicine.
Under
the terms of the agreement, PHCT, under the leadership of Chairman
Bernard J. Korman, will transfer all its assets to the University
as a restricted endowment to be used to benefit the programs of
Penn Medicine. Specifically, the agreement provides that, for
a seven-year period, the income generated by the $100 million
of PHCT assets will be distributed partly to support Penn Medicine
programs and partly to support existing and future PHCT charitable
undertakings. At the end of the seven-year period, the assets
of Philadelphia Health Care Trust will be transferred to Penn.
Mr.
Korman, who took his B.S. in economics at Penn in 1952 and his
J.D. here in 1955, recently joined Penn Medicine's Board of Trustees
as Vice Chairman, as well as a member of its Executive Committee
and Chair of its Finance Committee. Joining the Board of PHCT
will be Dr. Arthur H. Rubenstein, EVP of UPHS and Dean of the
School of Medicine, and Dr. Robert D. Martin, CEO of UPHS.
"We
are profoundly grateful to the Philadelphia Health Care Trust
for its generous gift, which represents a significant endorsement
of the Penn Medicine governance structure to effectively integrate
the three-part mission of our academic medical center," said
President Judith Rodin. "The programs of Penn Medicine will
be substantially enriched--both financially and intellectually--as
a result of this agreement and Bernie Korman's significant contributions
in his new leadership role with Penn Medicine. The philanthropic
vision of this gift will permit the University of Pennsylvania
Health System to obtain the ideal synergy among its educational,
research and clinical missions--which will lead to more and better
discoveries and advances in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment
of disease and disability."
"On
behalf of the Philadelphia Health Care Trust, I am pleased to
recognize and support the role of Penn Medicine as a superbly
crafted and effective governance structure for a complex academic
medical center," said Mr. Korman. "Our Board believes
that PHCT's total commitment to support Penn Medicine is the most
productive use for the entirety of the assets with which we have
been entrusted. We believe Penn Medicine will become the gold
standard' for the governance of other university-based health
systems and that its successful implementation will lead to improved
patient care."
The
Philadelphia Health Care Trust, created in 1998 as a charitable
organization to support advances in healthcare delivery, education,
and research, traces its roots to the academic medical mission
of the University of Pennsylvania. PHCT emerged from the former
Graduate Health System that emanated from the Graduate Hospital,
which was spun off from Penn in 1975. The assets of PHCT originated
from the sale of the for-profit Greater Atlantic Health System
when it was sold in 1995 to Health System International.
Penn
Medicine was established in November 2001 by the Trustees of the
University as the single governing body for UPHS--which consists
of four wholly-owned hospitals (HUP, Pennsylvania Hospital, Presbyterian
Medical Center, and Phoenixville Hospital), the School of Medicine,
the Clinical Practices of the University of Pennsylvania (the
faculty practice plan), Clinical Care Associates (a primary-care
network), two satellite facilities (Penn Medicine at Radnor and
Penn Medicine at Limerick), and hospice and home care. Penn Medicine's
Board of Trustees, led by David L. Cohen, Esq., is charged with
creating and operating a fully integrated system for medical education,
biomedical research, and clinical care.
The
creation of Penn Medicine comes during a period of continued development
for the University and its Health System. In September, Penn appointed
Dr. Arthur H. Rubenstein as the singular head of its Health System
and School of Medicine--to serve as Executive Vice President and
Dean, respectively. Before joining Penn, Dr. Rubenstein was Dean
of Mount Sinai's School of Medicine, in New York. With the launch
of Penn Medicine, the Health System "gained the additional
structural flexibility it needed to succeed in a dynamically fluid
and highly competitive marketplace," said President Rodin.