Note: this editorial was published in the September 25, 2022 edition of the Toledo Blade.
It’s never pretty when dreams are shattered. It’s nothing short of a calamity when two vital institutions are confronting the nightmare.
The partnership between the University of Toledo College of Medicine and Life Sciences. the former Medical College of Ohio Hospital, and ProMedica health system is a classic example. In 2015 when university and hospital leaders signed a partnership agreement under the gaze of city leadership, then-UT President Sharon Gaber said, “this is a transformational day for the University of Toledo, for ProMedica, and for the Toledo community.”
That dream of institutional-strengthening synergy between UT and ProMedica has turned into an ugly situation for both institutions at about the worst possible time. ProMedica’s coronavirus related fiscal troubles have caused a downgrade of the system’s debt to junk status. UT’s enrollment decline is so significant a $200 million housing upgrade had to be canceled.
The deal between UT and ProMedica was supposed to make each party stronger and thus be great for Toledo. The university’s medical students and residents would work with ProMedica as the exclusive clinical education partner. In return, ProMedica would pay UT around $50 million a year for 50 years.
Theoretically the ProMedica affiliation makes UT’s medical school more attractive to potential students and ProMedica benefits from access to a steady stream of physicians with ties to Toledo. But reality struck this week when ProMedica’s missed monthly payments brought Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost to town, threatening to sue the health system if it doesn’t make a payment by Sept. 28.
The A.G. is legal counsel for all of Ohio’s state universities. Mr. Yost accused ProMedica of using its financial weight to starve UT into submission in a dispute over expenses UT owes ProMedica. Mr. Yost called ProMedica’s contention that the contractual obligation was balanced out by expenses owed to them, “hogwash.”
Mr. Yost says the contract shows “miniscule” expenses compared to the monthly payment owed to the university by the hospital. He says it’s possible for the 2015 pact to be renegotiated but only if the parties operate in “good faith.”
This is much more than a blemish to the reputation of both ProMedica and UT. It hurts both institutions to have this bubble up in public and reinforce the perception of serious financial decline as the cause of a deal coming apart.
Just as both ProMedica and the University of Toledo were aided by a successful deal, each is weakened terribly by this display of distress. And of course the transformation that was good for Toledo in 2015 is terrible for us all as it unravels acrimoniously in 2022.