A pledge to look outward from the hill

With a new president in place at OHSU, an institution that has
Thursday, July 13, 2006
The Oregonian

blossomed in size now needs to cultivate its connections

T he incoming president of Oregon Health & Science University says he wants the organization to focus more explicitly on external partners, from community colleges around the state to venture capitalists in Portland. After some recent high-profile flaps and low-profile disgruntlement, this is what many OHSU watchers want to hear.

Joseph Robertson, the dean of OHSU's medical school, was chosen from among three finalists to replace Peter Kohler, retiring at the end of the summer after 18 years as president. Kohler presided over a remarkable growth spurt at the school and hospital, which added buildings and campuses, strengthened its reputation as a nationally prominent research institution and slugged its way to heavyweight status as a business enterprise.

Robertson was the popular choice to succeed him. He is a knowledgeable, well-respected, longtime Oregonian who is deeply familiar with the institution and well-versed on the health care issues playing out across the state, from Portland to Eastern Oregon towns. Colleagues call him an inspired choice to oversee the next chapter of OHSU's development.

Under Kohler, OHSU's gains came at some cost to the institution's good will. The bruising battle over the tram between Marquam Hill and the new South Waterfront campus is only the latest and most prominent of the episodes that have damaged OHSU's standing in the community. In recent years, OHSU has taken a hard line in the case of paying for the care of Jordaan Clarke, whose brain was damaged when an air tube was dislodged during a procedure at the hospital. It warned it might close its Poison Center, which serves the public around the clock. It threatened to expand in Washington County instead of Portland.

Kohler himself made the odd choice to join forces with Texas Pacific when the buyout firm sought to buy Portland General Electric. Instead of winning friends, in recent years OHSU has lost a few.

The institution has proclaimed itself, with considerable justification, a critically important employer and economic engine, especially for biotechnology and health sciences. Yet when biotechnology firm Genentech declared it would build a plant in Hillsboro, company officials said they had no contact with OHSU.

Privately, investors and business executives have complained for years that OHSU is too big and inward-looking to be responsive to private-sector needs. They say it takes a lot of persistence to accomplish anything with OHSU, even when both parties would benefit from working together.

To his credit, Robertson acknowledges that OHSU can and should work more collaboratively with the business community. And he insists that the school has no intention of abandoning its public mission to place doctors and nurses where needed and widen the availability of health care.

Robertson says OHSU's mission hasn't changed, but political arguments over the tram and other things have diverted attention from the institution's fundamental purpose. He would like to return the public's focus to OHSU's role as a medical enterprise, a research institution, a teaching school and a provider of health care services.

Amen to that. Portland and Oregon have bet heavily on OHSU's success, from assisting its real estate development to providing millions of dollars in state funds -- though never as much as OHSU would like. To the extent that the institution can grow while fulfilling its mission of providing education, research, health care and health programs, Oregon will benefit.