Northwestern University said Dr. Jeffrey Glassroth has been named interim dean of the Feinberg School of Medicine, effective Jan. 1.
Glassroth is president and chief executive of the Northwestern Medical Faculty Foundation, a 700-member doctor practice affiliated with Northwestern Memorial Hospital. He is also vice dean of Feinberg School of Medicine.
The interim appointment will fill the job of Dr. Larry Jameson, who recently said he would leave to become dean of the University of Pennsylvania’s medical school July 1, 2011. Though Glassroth will take over as Northwestern’s medical school dean, Jameson “will continue to serve as vice president for medical affairs and dean emeritus after Jan. 1, 2011,” the university said in a statement Friday afternoon.
The changes at Feinberg come as Northwestern Memorial Hospital and affiliated doctor groups are discussing a major restructuring that could lead to a more streamlined patient experience at the academic medical complex in Streeterville, the Tribune reported last month.
The new structure, called Northwestern Medicine, could help better prepare the facility to operate under the federal health overhaul and put it in the nation’s top tier of medical centers, sources close to the hospital and doctors’ group say.
Under the current model, the hospital and the Northwestern Medical Faculty Foundation, its largest doctor group, are separate entities, complicating the decision-making process.
Under Northwestern Medicine, the two groups would act in concert — perhaps even under one enterprise — to contract with health insurance companies and develop the list of preferred medical care providers from which consumers choose, these sources say.
The new structure also could allow the parent entity to make business decisions when recruiting physicians or obtaining grant money.
Insurance companies will be demanding a more coordinated approach by medical providers that includes better data on patient outcomes and ways to show their care measures up to or outperforms their rivals.
It’s unclear who would lead Northwestern Medicine. Those issues are currently under discussion, according to sources close to the hospital and faculty foundation.
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