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Tampa General, USF leaders aim to strengthen relationship at top

 
Published Sept. 19, 2014

TAMPA — The chief executive officers at Tampa General Hospital and the University of South Florida's medical school are giving each other leadership roles in their operations, another move intended to cement what has sometimes been a testy relationship between the two institutions.

Tampa General CEO Jim Burkhart and Dr. Charles Lockwood, dean of USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, will now participate in each other's senior executive meetings, the pair announced in a joint news release Thursday.

Each will get an additional title to reflect the increased level of collaboration. Burkhart is now also senior associate dean at the medical school and Lockwood is executive vice president and chief academic officer at Tampa General.

The two institutions are deeply entwined, with Tampa General serving as the primary teaching hospital for USF medical residents.

Relatively new to their jobs, the two men say the institutions must work even more closely together amid the uncertainty and changes in the health care industry. Already, Lockwood said, the pair have worked on a number of lingering issues, such as synching up their electronic records systems and revising how they document residency time at the hospital.

And that means there's no time for personal rifts, said Lockwood, who started his job this past spring.

"There's no room for personalities in dealing with partners," he said. "These are serious business and academic transactions."

It was a reference to the well-documented divisions between their predecessors, Dr. Stephen Klasko at USF and Tampa General CEO Ron Hytoff. The disputes stemmed in large part from Klasko's ambitions to expand USF's footprint, according to a series of emails obtained by the Tampa Bay Times last year.

Burkhart, who took the Tampa General job in early 2013, said many of those problems may have been avoided by having leaders in the same room on a regular basis. Sharing strategic and financial information should help the institutions work better together, he said.

As part of the newly announced changes, Lockwood will work with Tampa General staff on developing USF's academic programs and expanding research capabilities. Burkhart will participate in recruiting physicians to the medical school's practice.

"Neither one of us can do anything about the past," Burkhart said, "but we can do something about the future."

He pointed out that the relationship has gone beyond the offices, too. The two men recently went to Sarasota on a fishing trip together.