Hart wants inquiry into University of Arizona med schools' leadership

University of Arizona President Ann Weaver Hart is asking for an independent investigation into allegations of misuse of public funds by the university’s health-sciences leadership.

In a statement released late Monday, Hart said she was caught unaware by Arizona Board of Regents President Eileen Klein’s comments at the beginning of a regents meeting held in Tucson on Friday.

Klein referred to allegations of both misuse of public funds and the questionable accuracy of public documents when she opened the meeting, which focused on the leadership of the UA’s two medical schools — the UA College of Medicine Tucson and the UA College of Medicine Phoenix.

The special four-hour meeting of the regents’ Health Affairs Committee in Tucson, and another one held in Phoenix on Aug. 5, were convened after the Arizona Medical Association took a vote of “no confidence” in the UA’s health-sciences leadership.

Public attention on the executive leadership of the UA’s two medical schools began after six top leaders at the UA College of Medicine Phoenix left earlier this year, including its dean, Dr. Stuart Flynn.

Dr. Joe G.N. “Skip” Garcia, the senior vice president for health sciences who earns $870,000 per year, has also come under public scrutiny afteran Arizona Republic article that focused on his travel expenses, including taxpayer-funded, chauffeur-driven car rides between Tucson and Phoenix that cost upward of $475.

Garcia, who reports directly to Hart, oversees all of the UA’s health colleges — the UA College of Medicine Tucson, the UA College of Medicine Phoenix, the UA College of Pharmacy the UA College of Nursing, and the UA Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health.

Garcia, through a spokesman, would not comment Tuesday.

Hart has not received information that there was any criminal wrongdoing, UA spokeswoman Pam Scott said Tuesday night.

The Phoenix-based Arizona Medical Association earlier this summer asked the regents to conduct an independent investigation into the executive health-sciences leadership at the UA. And association Executive Vice President Chic Older has made it clear that the association wants the investigation conducted at the behest of the regents, not the UA.

Hart originally told the regents at both meetings that the UA was hiring a third party to conduct a “climate survey” in the UA health-sciences colleges and to also do exit interviews with the UA College of Medicine Phoenix leaders who left.

But on Monday, she issued a statement calling for an independent third-party law firm to conduct an investigation with no UA or regents employees involved.

“I applaud the action. Whether it comes from President Hart or ABOR, they are doing what we have urged them to do,” Older said Tuesday.

“We are very pleased because we feel what is at stake here is the medical schools. That is our No. 1 commitment when it comes to this issue.”

In her statement, Hart said Klein’s comments at the beginning of Friday’s meeting went “far beyond” complaints about leadership, style, morale, organizational climate and resource allocations.

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“Ms. Klein’s allegations, including misuse of public funds and alteration of public documents, were previously unknown to me,” Hart said in her prepared statement.

“I expect the full cooperation and candor of everyone at the University of Arizona in this process,” Hart said in her prepared statement.

At Friday’s meeting, Garcia had a long line of supporters during the public comment period, some of them UA health-sciences employees who called him “transformational” and a “superstar.” Some said that over the next decade he could help make Banner-University Medical Center Tucson one of the best hospitals in the nation.

Older said that under Flynn, the UA College of Medicine in Phoenix was on its way to becoming one of the best allopathic medical schools in the country. So it was a, “huge blow” when Flynn left, followed by major members of his staff, Older said.

And while Garcia has said it is not unusual in academic medicine for a dean to leave and be followed by members of his staff, not everyone agrees. Older said the Arizona Medical Association, which has 4,000 members, cannot find a working example of an entire dean’s staff leaving any allopathic medical school in recent history.

“That sent a very clear signal that there needs to be a better understanding of what prompted that,” Older said. “Every member of ours has either graduated from medical school or is in medical schools. We understand medical schools and how important they are. We are not casual observers.”

Last year, the Liaison Committee on Medical Education wrote a letter to the school saying changes would be needed in order to secure full accreditation of the Phoenix medical school.

Among other things, the accrediting body expressed concern about a recent academic affiliation between Phoenix-based Banner Health and the UA that was created when Banner merged with the Tucson-based $1.2 billion UA Health Network.

Banner was the surviving entity in that merger and now owns both Banner University Medical Center Tucson and Banner University Medical Center South, which are both academic teaching hospitals.

The Phoenix medical school has since been granted provisional accreditation this year, which puts it on pace for full accreditation in 2017, UA officials say. But the Arizona Medical Association is concerned that the departure of so many senior leaders at the medical school could adversely affect that accreditation process.

The association wants the Arizona Board of Regents to take “corrective action” based on an investigation “to ensure long-term excellence in medical education at the U of A College of Medicine Phoenix and Tucson.”

In an emailed statement Tuesday, Klein said her remarks at the beginning of Friday’s regents meeting in Tucson reflected “many, many concerns brought forward by constituents who have reached out to me in my capacity as president.”

Klein said she felt the issues raised were significant enough and chronic enough that she needed to speak publicly about them.

“I have made no allegations myself; I simply relayed to the board the serious and troubling concerns brought to my attention,” she wrote.

“Further inquiry into these matters is imperative. It is important that the board be able to document the issues that exist and address them. It is our job to run these universities to the best of our ability on behalf of the citizens of this state whom we serve.”