Eastern Virginia Medical School - Yearbook (Norfolk, VA)

Page 11 text:

have called the act one of the most enlightened pieces of health care legislation ever produced. And, judging by what the Authority has accomplished, it may well be. However, to the pragmatic community leaders, business and professional people, who would lead the drive to establish the. school, it was seen primarily as a hunting license - great things were possible, if you could make them happen. When the City Council of Norfolk appointed the seven non-salaried Commissioners to the Medical Authority in 1964 they choose regionally oriented people from other eastern Virginia cities as well as Norfolk. Able, dedicated men with demonstrated success in their professional and business operations, the Commissioners were also members of the establishment in the finest sense of the word. People with long careers of voluntary public service in education, community funds, hospital board memberships, planning councils and other civic groups that aided the professional social service organizations. Administrative costs of the Authority were funded by the City of Norfolk. A part-time director and a secretary were selected, total costs for the first year including equipment and office space were under S35,000. Recognizing that more health service elements had to be in place to establish the credibility of the medical school concept with federal agencies and the national accrediting body, the Authority concentrated first on enlarging the clinical base and attracting' top flight physican! teachers. Because of their own high credibility the Commissioners were able to organize committees of physicians and other interests to advise on the area's most critical health needs, and on ways that meeting those needs could be structured for future use by the medical school. Thousands of hours of planning, research and consultation were voluntarily contributed over the next five years. The Medical Authority acted as broker in arranging multiple sources of local, state and federal funds to establish and staff high-priority health care facilities. The first to flower was the Tidewater Rehabilitation Instituteg con- struction began in 1965. It was the first of four new health service programs the Authority opened in 1967. In June the Rehabilitation Institute began providing a broad range of physical and occupational therapy to the handicapped including the area's first public resource for children with learning disabilities. Five months later, in concert with area hospitals, the Authority opened a Cardiopulmonary Labora- tory and a Cardiovascular Center to provide the first capability for open heart surgery in eastern Virginia. Cancer and heart ailment investigations began later that year when the Research Institute was opened in the area's largest hospital by the Authority. By mid-1969 there were enough health care facilities in the pipe line to provide the needed clinical base. It was time to get to the financing. Health educators and consultants had estimated the long range costs for all elements of the medical school at S60 million, most of it federally financed or self amortizing. The immediate requirement was in privately contributed funds to start the ball rolling. Thirty-five of eastern Virginia's public service minded citizens were named Co-chairmen of the Campaign Committee and charged with raising S15 million in front end money to finance construction and endowment of the medical school. That bargain basement price was predicted on the use of existing hospitals for the bedside training of students, thereby avoiding the enormous expense of building and maintaining a university hospital. It also counted on the practicing physicians of the area contributing teaching time to the school, and on matching federal construction funds on a two-federal for one-local basis, the then prevalent matching pattern. The broad stroke plan was to raise S5 million for construction fproducing S15 million with the federal matchj and S10 million for endowment. Interest on the endowment funds would help meet the expected annual operating loss of S2 million. The balance of the deficit was to be made up through a yearly contribution by the City of Norfolk and a hoped for state subsidy of 34,000 per student per year. Because of the massive sums needed, the fund raisers would concentrate only on prospects capable of gifts of 530,000 or more, payable over 10 years if necessary. Less would be accepted, but the first effort was geared to the big-ticket potential. To make the soliciting of large gifts easier, and to provide protection for the contributors should the campaign fail, the Eastern Virginia Medical School Foundation was established. This non-private foundation made possible maximum IRS benefits to the donors and provided an entity for holding and managing contributed funds. The broad geographic area represented by its trustees assured a regional approach to the Foundation's mission. Privately, the Campaign Committee solicited its own members, getting commitments that approached S1 million. It was expected that half the S15 million would be raised with difficulty in eastern Virginia, the balance coming with relative ease from major national foundations and corpora- tions. This was the only major miscalculation of the Campaign Committee. The campaign began on January 15, 1970, with the expectation it would be completed within six months - it actually took three years. The national sources, with very few exceptions, were usually courteous and always firm in saying No and the people of eastern Virginia kept digging down to make up for the lack of national support. Public reaction to the fund drive was excellent. From the beginning the business and professional communities supported the school and contributed handsomely. Many clubs and civic groups contributed through self-assessment by the membership without being asked. One persuasive argument was the tremendous economic benefit the school would bring. The attraction of highly paid professionals, the increase in jobs at the medical center, millions of dollars in construction and the attendant tax revenues through the years - it all added up to additional yearly payrolls of more than S20 million and a cash turnover of about S100 million a year when the school and medical center reached maturity. However, by mid-1970 the campaign began to lag. About S4 million had been pledged locally and the first disappointments were coming in from national sources. Announcements of new health care facilities established by

Page 10 text:

CHAIRMEN OF THE MEDICAL AUTHORITY MASON C. ANDREWS, M.D. HARRY H. MANSBACH ROBERT L. PAYNE, JR., M D T964-T970 1970-T974 1974- H Mason C. Andrews, M.D. 'Charles F. Burroughs, Jr 'Marian P. Capps, Ed.D. Roy R. Charles 'Edwin W. Chittum 'Richard F. Clark, M.D. 'Charles N. Cooper Lawrence M. Cox John Franklin, M.D. COMMISSIONERS OF THE MEDICAL AUTHORITY Asterisk indicates current appointment A. B. Gornto, Jr. Roy D. Hudson, Ph.D. 'Sidney S. Kellam 'Arthur A. Kirk, M.D. Harry H. Mansboch Walter A. Page M. Lee Payne R.l. Payne, Jr., M.D. Harry B. Price, Jr. Llewellyn S. Richardson E., Redwood Richardson Toy D. Savage, Jr. C. E. Thurston, Jr. Richard F. Welton, III Richard F. Wood William P. Woodley

Page 12 text:

the Medical Authority helped recharge campaigners batteries. At the Children's Hospital a Department of Pediatric Neurology was started. A Renal Dialysis Center with six artificial kidney machines was opened in another hospital with the promise that work would soon begin on a kidney transplant program. Up to this point, the nearest transplant facility for patients with serious kidney disease was more than 100 miles away at the medical school in Richmond, and the waiting time for transplants was measured in months and years. Plans for an 80 bed mental health center and psychiatric institute were announced along with the immediate opening of three mental health outreach centers to provide limited care until the institute became operational. The fund raisers kept making the calls, visiting homes and offices, and became thick-skinned about rejections. In October 1970, ten months after the formal start of the campaign to establish the EVMS, the prestigious Carnegie Commission on Higher Education issued its report on Higher Education and the Nation's Health . The Carnegie Report identified the eastern Virginia area as the second largest population center in the United States without a university health science center. In its Report the Carnegie Commission also recognizes that local initiative is desirable, and usually essential, in planning for a new university health science center. In the absence of local initiative, it may be difficult to develop centers in the nine communities we have identified. The Carnegie Report not only validated the need for the establishment of the EVMS and the benefits that would follow, it underscored the essential rightness of the approach, local response to a local need. January 1971, the first anniversary of the fund campaign, found the total at just over S7 million in cash and pledges, virtually all of it from eastern Virginia. National sources were still saying No and that part of the campaign was to be intensified. It was and the results were discouraging. April was a climactic month. The fund drive reached the local goal of 37.5 million, the first meaningful out of town money came in - S200,000 from a foundation, the medical school's Dean was appointed, a site visit was scheduled by the accrediting committee, and it appeared there might be trouble at the State Capitol on the request for a student subsidy. The Governor was preparing his budget for the 1972 - 1974 biennium and had asked for a detailed report on the financial planning for construction and operation of the school. The Medical Authority produced a comprehensive report which included the hoped for subsidy of 54,000 per student per year. A delegation of Authority Commissioners, the Campaign Chairman, State Legislators and the United States Congressmen from the area was to hand-deliver the document. The meeting with the Governor was cancelled abruptly by phone with instructions to mail the report. The signals from the State Capitol were not good. In May the Liaison Committee on Medical Education sent its survey team to eastern Virginia. The Committee is made up of members from the Association of American Medical Colleges and the Council on Medical Education of the American Medical Association. It is the formal THE HONORABLE PORTER HARDY, JR. Chairman, EVMS Campaign Committee accrediting body for United States medical schools. Bulky reports had been prepared by the Dean and the Authority staff, which now numbered eight people. After three days of concentrated study of plans and facilities and of conversa- tions with medical professionals and educators, the site visitors left to deliberate and prepare a report for the full Committee. Meanwhile, the thirty-five Co-chairman of the fund raising campaign had added more volunteers as contributions became harder to get. The small army slogged its way through the summer and fall raising money locally, but getting no significant responses from ,national sources. At the second anniversary of the fund drive, in January 1972, the total of cash and pledges was approaching S9 million and the Governor had not included the state subsidy in his budget. However, in late January the Liaison Committee officially declared the Eastern Virginia Medical School to be a school in development and recommended that it be granted provisional membership in the Association of American Medical Colleges. This is the first in the four step process of accreditation and it put the School formally into business, making it eligible for some federal assistance in development. This recognition also armed the state legislators of eastern Virginia for a battle in the Appropriations Committee. There, they would attempt to put into the budget the state subsidy funds the Governor had refused to include. From the Liaison Committee's report, state funds are absolutely necessary and must be committed before the School can enroll students. With the limitation as presently cast at S1 million, the Commonwealth of Virginia is acquiring a definite bargain in medical education. There was a sharp skirmish with the Governor who ob- jected, he said, not to the 596,000 at issue for the 24 students expected to enter in 1973, but to the concept of state