Ba. Johnson, Integration of student-health physicians into US medical schools and theiraffiliated teaching hospitals, ACAD MED, 75(11), 2000, pp. 1125-1129
Purpose. To determine whether physicians in the student health services (SH
Ss) at U.S. medical schools and their affiliated teaching hospitals, referr
ed to here as academic medical centers (AMCs), have unique opportunities fo
r integration into AMCs that do not exist for physician-faculty at SHSs on
purely academic campuses.
Method. A survey of SHS offices at the 124 U.S. medical schools was conduct
ed in the spring of 1999. The questionnaire asked about the reporting relat
ionships of the SHS within the AMC, whether the student-health physicians h
ad academic appointments within the AMC, and whether these physicians parti
cipated in the AMC's clinical services, administration, research, or teachi
ng activities.
Results. There were 116 (94%) responses (not all responses were complete an
d eight were excluded because their campuses offered no formal SHS). Approx
imately half of the SHSs (52/107, 49%) reported to their AMCs. Student-heal
th physicians with career-track appointments were more likely to be found a
t SHSs reporting to AMCs (35/58, 60%) than at SHSs reporting solely to a di
vision of student affairs (20/58, 34%). Having a career-track appointment i
ncreased the likelihood of the student-health physicians' attending on the
wards (34/59, 58%), seeing private patients in an AMC's faculty practice (4
0/59, 68%), participating in administrative activities for an AMC (50/56, 8
9%), and participating in research activities (36/57, 63%).
Conclusions. Student health services that reported to their AMCs were more
likely to have faculty with career-track appointments, and these appointmen
ts were more likely to result in the integration of student-health physicia
ns into their AMC's clinical services, administration, and research activit
ies. Career-track appointments, however, had no influence on whether teachi
ng activities occurred within the SHS. Fully integrating student-health phy
sicians into the AMC's activities enhances outcomes for both the SHS and it
s AMC.