Organizational models for medical school - Clinical enterprise relationships

Changes in the organization, financing, and delivery of health care service s have prompted medical school leaders to search for new organizational mod els for linking medical schools, faculty practice groups, affiliated hospit als, and insurers-models that better meet the contemporary challenges of go vernance and decision making in academic medicine. However, medical school leaders have relatively little information about the range of organizationa l models that could be adopted, the extent to which particular organization al models are actually used, the conditions under which different organizat ional models are appropriate, and the ramifications of different organizati onal models for the academic mission. In this article, the authors offer a typology of eight organizational models that medical school leaders might u se to understand and manage their relationships with physicians, hospitals, and other components of clinical delivery systems needed to support and fu lfill the academic mission. In addition to illustrating the models with spe cific examples from the field, the authors speculate about their prevalence , the conditions that favor one over another, and the benefits and drawback s of each for medical schools. To conclude, they discuss how medical school and clinical enterprise leaders could use the organizational typology to h elp them develop strategy and manage relationships with each other and thei r other partners.