University Creates Board to Oversee UHS

Operational control of University Heath Services (UHS) will shift from Director David S. Rosenthal `59 to a newly created, six-person executive board starting later this month.

An official announcement from University President Lawrence H. Summers is expected in the next few days.

Rosenthal, who requested the board’s creation, said he hopes the change will allow UHS to receive the administrative attention it deserves.

“This system replaces the board of the president and Fellows, which has so many things on its plate that when they do meet, they deal with global issues,” Rosenthal said.

Under the new system, Rosenthal will report only to the executive board, which in turn will report to the president and Fellows of Harvard College. Currently, Rosenthal reports to the provost in what Associate Provost Dennis F. Thompson characterizes as a “fairly informal” relationship.

The executive board will relieve Rosenthal of the need to both oversee UHS’s clinical operations and act as a liaison to the Harvard administration.

“I’m the director of UHS, the CEO of the hospital and prepaid medical plans, and one of the two delegated reresentatives to the governing bodies of Harvard,” said Rosenthal, who has headed UHS since 1989. “I’m wearing too many hats.”

The board includes Professor of Economics David M. Cutler, Professor of Health Care Policy David Blumenthal, Professor of Pathology S. James Adelstein, Professor of International Health Jennifer Leaning and Yale University Health Services Psychiatrist-in-Chief Lorraine D. Siggins.

All board members are current Harvard faculty members, with the exception of Siggins, who is a faculty member at Yale University. Siggins was head of the visiting committee that recently examined and reported on UHS Mental Health Services.

The board was chosen over the summer by Thompson and Rosenthal. Summers could not partake in the decision because Rosenthal is his personal physician, creating a conflict-of-interest.

Thompson, as acting provost, will chair the board. The addition of one or two more board members with managed health care experience is expected following the first board meeting later this month.

“I think it’s important that the board be a group of individuals that is outside UHS, but that also consults and advises the director,” said board member Adelstein, who currently sits on several standing UHS committees. “It’s a committee that’s very knowledgable, and will have important advice to provide to UHS.”

The board’s mission, as stated in its charter, is to “oversee and promote UHS’s mission to deliver health care services of the highest possible quality to the students, faculty, staff, and the other members of the Harvard community who it serves.”

A board of trustees is commonplace for larger health care facilities.

—Staff writer Arianne R. Cohen can be reached at cohen7@fas.harvard.edu.