10-07-94 Trustees: Medical Consortium, Helicopter

OHIO STATE JOINS MEDICAL SCHOOL CONSORTIUM, MERGES HELICOPTERS

     CLEVELAND -- The Ohio State University Board of Trustees
Friday (8/7), meeting at the Cleveland Clinic, voted to join the
Ohio Medical Schools Consortium and merge its medical helicopter
service with that of Grant Medical Center in Columbus.

     Both organizations will be operated as non-profit
corporations.

     The Ohio Medical Schools Consortium presents an opportunity
for the medical colleges in the state to provide a leadership
role in Ohio health care reform and health care policy, according
to Manuel Tzagournis, vice president for health sciences at Ohio
State.

     "The colleges of medicine in Ohio are collaborating to form
a model statewide health delivery system in which faculty and
hospitals can participate," Tzagournis noted.

     The schools and colleges are at Case Western Reserve
University in Cleveland, the Medical College of Ohio in Toledo,
the Northeast Ohio Universities College of Medicine in Rootstown,
Ohio State, Ohio University in Athens, the University of
Cincinnati, and Wright State University in Dayton.

     According to Tzagournis, the consortium will be able to
improve the quality and cost effectiveness of patient care and
achieve increased efficiencies of scale.

     Other opportunities provided by a consortium include
enhancing the commitment of faculty teaching and research and the
training of physicians as primary care providers, Tzagournis
said.

     The formation of the new helicopter corporation will
consolidate the operations of the Life Flight medical helicopter
service offered by Grant Medical Center and SKYMED, operated by
University Hospitals through the Hospital Helicopter Consortium
of Central Ohio.  The services provide emergency air medical
transportation for critically ill and injured persons in central,
southern and eastern Ohio.  In fiscal 1993, Life Flight and
SKYMED completed 2,648 requests for service.

     Ohio State and Grant signed a letter of intent to
consolidate the services in February and announced their decision
in April.
                                #

Contact:  Manuel Tzagournis (Ohio Medical Schools
          Consortium), (614) 292-0926;
          R. Reed Fraley, executive director,
          University Hospitals (The Ohio Medical
          Transportation Corp.), (614) 293-5555.


[Submitted by: REIDV  (reidv@ccgate.ucomm.ohio-state.edu)
               
Fri, 07 Oct 1994 15:35:54 -0500 (EST)]
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