Issue date: 7/3/08 Section: Campus

Media Credit: Chen, Jennifer A branch of the Evanston Northwestern Healthcare Research Institute, the research arm of ENH, sits a few blocks to the west of NU's Evanston campus on Maple Ave.

Evanston Northwestern Healthcare may be considering a name change.

The academic health system with hospitals in Evanston, Glenbrook, and Highland Park has agreed to discontinue its affiliation with Northwestern University, ending a 78-year relationship.

As a result, 800 NU faculty members and 200 students will be phased out of faculty and residency positions in the next year and transferred to other facilities coordinated by McGaw Medical Center, the consortium of Northwestern-affiliated clinics and hospitals.

"The change is really in how we train medical students and residents," said Mark Neaman, President and CEO of Evanston Northwestern Healthcare. Neaman attributed the hospital's dissatisfaction to Northwestern's shifted focus from Evanston Northwestern Healthcare's hospital in Evanston to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago.

"The growth and prosperity and focus became on the Chicago campus where the medical school (Feinberg School of Medicine) is located," he said.

J. Larry Jameson, vice president for medical affairs and Feinberg School of Medicine dean, agreed that a difference in "visions" was most responsible for the separation in a memo he sent to faculty that was obtained by the Chicago Tribune.

"We cannot afford to compromise our academic vision and missions, expectations for faculty roles, and the processes that all great universities employ to select their faculty and leaders," wrote Jameson in a memo to Northwestern faculty.

Discontent between Northwestern and Evanston Northwestern Healthcare has existed for years, according to Neaman. "About four years ago, the university and Northwestern Memorial Hospital came together, when there was additional financial investments into the medical school," he said. "All of those dollars were isolated to the Chicago campus. Before that there was not the kind of money exchange between the university, the medical school, and Northwestern Memorial Hospital."

Both Neaman and Jameson agreed that financial disagreements contributed to the disafilliation, but were not the deciding factors.

Continued...

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