Rx

In the continuing treatment of the serious financial illness of the Medical School, a program of therapy prescribed as early as 1973 has culminated in an action which is expected to contribute to the health of that ailing patient and a number of others.

The original crisis occurred when the reactivation of the M.D. program coincided with drastic reduction of the federal funds which had regularly provided financial transfusions for medical education.

The Dartmouth Trustees at that time agreed to raise needed funds for the Medical School on condition that severe economy measures be instituted and that the school, together with Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital, the Hitchcock Clinic, and - to a certain extent - the Veterans Administration hospital in White River Junction, move toward the formation of a unified medical center. Howard N. Newman '56 was early in 1974 appointed first president of the confederation and a joint council representing the four institutions was established.

The Trustees have now endorsed a proposal recommended by the joint council and supported by the Medical School overseers, which calls for a fully-functioning Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center "with legal capacity and operational responsibility" by 1980. It would include a unified clinical faculty; a single board of trustees; integrated inpatient and outpatient services; the educational component of the Medical School economically self-sufficient to a substantial degree; integrated administrative and support services; and sub-units such as the Norris Cotton Cancer Center and the mental health center as discrete operating entities. Relationships with other institutions - particularly the VA hospital - would be supported.