STAFF EDITORIAL: Focus on the Health System

The Health System's recent financial woes deserve your attention, and stand to impact Penn considerably. Consider this your wake-up call. Because the Health System couldn't be more important to the University as a whole, and the next few months will be a critical time for shaping the system's future. The Health System's present difficulties come, at least in part, in the context of a fiscal crunch for academic hospitals nationwide. But the Health System is owned by Penn, and that means the system's recent losses stand to impact the financial health of the University as a whole. One fact seems particularly salient: The Health System comprises 55 percent of the University's annual budget -- and is expected to post more than $150 million in losses for the most recent fiscal year. But the Health System's importance extends beyond simple profits and losses. Penn's Medical and Nursing schools both benefit tremendously from close relationships with the Health System. And any number of Penn undergraduate and graduate students take advantage of research opportunities at HUP or classes taught by hospital faculty. Should the present financial difficulties force Penn to divest the Health System -- a possibility that is among the range of options currently under consideration -- all of those relationships would suffer, and with them the quality of a Penn education. It is the Health System's importance -- and the magnitude of the present difficulties -- that has pushed the system to the top of President Rodin and Executive Vice President Fry's agendas. These reasons have pushed the system to the center of our attention as well. In the weeks and months to come, we will be focusing on presenting you with a clear and in-depth picture of the Health System's importance to the University, of the nature of the current difficulties and of the attempted resolutions as they unfold. Our era is probably more cognizant of the mechanics of health care than any that preceded it. But the health care crisis is not just an issue of insurance and for congressional debate. It is an issue that stands to affect things like universities and people like Penn students. That is reason enough for it to have everyone's attention.