University continues reorganization of top Health System administration

Staff Report

Two senior positions in the U.Va. Health System will be combined and new reporting lines established to the University president and provost later this year, the University's Board of Visitors agreed March 22 at a meeting of its executive committee.

Acting on the recommendation of U.Va. President John T. Casteen III and the board's Health Affairs Committee, the board voted to establish a new position: the dean of the School of Medicine/vice president and chief medical officer. Casteen said an international search will be conducted to fill the position.

"I have asked Dr. Munsey Wheby to chair a committee to identify issues that must be addressed as part of this consolidation and to draft a job description for the new position," Casteen said. Wheby is senior associate dean in the School of Medicine.

"These changes are another step in the administrative reorganization we began in November 1999 with Leonard Sandridge's expanded role in the Medical Center," Casteen said. "Over the past 12 months we have studied the administrative structures of other academic medical centers and have consulted extensively with our own faculty members and administrators, as well as with outside experts.

"This more streamlined academic structure will help sustain the progress made in recent years by the schools of Medicine and Nursing, support the Virginia 2020 initiatives, and encourage new collaborations across academic disciplines, especially those that link medicine to engineering and to the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences," he said.

Last month, Dr. Robert W. Cantrell, vice president and provost for health affairs, announced that he will not seek reappointment to his administrative posts when his term ends June 30.

Many of Cantrell's duties will be combined with those of the dean of medicine to form the new cabinet-level position of vice president and chief medical officer. While this officer, like all University cabinet members, will report to the president, he or she also will report to the University provost in regard to the administration of the medical school and on academic relations with the University's other schools.

Dr. Robert M. Carey, who will complete his third term as dean of the School of Medicine next week, will continue to serve as dean while the search is conducted.
When Cantrell steps down, both Carey and B. Jeanette Lancaster, dean of the School of Nursing, will report to the University provost, bringing all 10 of the University's schools under the same academic leadership. A national search is now under way for a provost to succeed Peter W. Low, who announced in September that he would step down at the end of the academic year to return to teaching in the law school.

Another search, for chief executive officer of the Medical Center, is expected to conclude this spring, Casteen said. That new administrator will report to Leonard W. Sandridge, who will continue to oversee the management of the hospital and clinical activities as the University's executive vice president and chief operating officer.