As predicted here and here, this Todd Ackerman/Chronicle article reports that the Texas Medical Center managers’ board of directors rejected Baylor College of Medicine complaint‘s Wednesday that the Medical Center’s historic charter and deed restrictions prohibit Methodist Hospital‘s creation and operation of its own education and research programs and its partnership with the New York-based Cornell University Weill Medical School.
As an aside, Mr. Ackerman notes that the TMC board and the Texas Attorney General are tiring of the Baylor-Methodist spat:

In a letter to the presidents of Baylor and Methodist, the board also delivered a rebuke of sorts, reminding the battling institutions of their historic obligation to cooperate “to better serve the interests of the people of Texas” and calling for them to resolve their dispute. It marked the first time since the longtime partners split in April 2004 that the TMC made such a formal appeal.
A similar appeal was made after the meeting by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott’s office, which previously had stayed out of the dispute. Saying it has concerns about the future of the Medical Center, it released a statement expressing hope the two institutions “exhaust every avenue in trying to work out their differences.”

My sense is that a lawsuit between the two former Medical Center partners is still a distinct possibility. Stay tuned.

Following up on a story noted in this earlier post, the Chronicle’s Todd Ackerman continues his outstanding reporting over the past year on the historic split between Baylor Medical School and Methodist Hospital with this article in which he reports that Baylor has formally accused Methodist of attempting to put the medical school out of busienss in connection with an administrative proceeding before the entity that manages the Texas Medical Center.
The context of the current phase of the dispute between the two longtime Medical Center partners is a proceeding before the Texas Medical Center’s covenant compliance committee in which the committee will determine whether Methodist is violating the Medical Center’s deed restrictions by starting competitive education and research programs with New York’s Cornell University Weill Medical School. Baylor contends that the programs and affiliation between Methodist and Cornell is an attempt by Methodist to harm Baylor.
Although a legal longshot (Texas law does not favor covenants that restrict competition), Baylor’s latest salvo is another public relations nightmare for Methodist, which is attempting to carve out a post-Baylor plan to remain a primary research institution. Methodist has a big advantage in that its $2.3 billion endowment is over twice the size of Baylor’s endowment, but Baylor is aggressively pursuing new affiliations with other Medical Center institutions. Consequently, there is no assurance that Methodist’s current financial advantage will result in a dominant position in the Medical Center five to ten years down the road, particularly if Methodist’s research affiliations do not compete effectively with those of Baylor and other Medical Center institutions.

The Texas Medical Center has already been rocked over the past year by the split between longtime partners Baylor Medical School and The Methodist Hospital, but today’s Chronicle article by Todd Ackerman adds a new level of uncertainty for the heart of Houston’s medical community:

St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital is weighing offers that would align it with either Memorial Hermann Hospital or a consortium of Texas Children’s and The Methodist hospitals. . . St. Luke’s would merge with Memorial Hermann under the first scenario.
Texas Children’s and Methodist would purchase the hospital under the second.
Those options ? and a third that St. Luke’s continue to go it alone ? are before the St. Luke’s board of directors now, . . .
A decision should come within a few months.

Never a dull moment in the Medical Center, eh? Mr. Ackerman reports that the negotiations are the product of a developing consensus within the Medical Center that more collaboration is needed between the various institutions.
Nevertheless, the proposed collaborations are ambitious and complicated, to say the least. Inasmuch as St. Luke’s is the new teaching hospital of Baylor Medical School and Memorial Hermann is the longtime teaching hospital for the University of Texas Health Science Center, any St. Luke’s-Hermann merger would have the added complication of providing resources for two medical schools.
Similarly, an acquisition of St. Luke’s by Methodist would be akin to annulling the acrimonious divorce between Methodist and Baylor.
So, stay tuned. The pressures of providing quality health care services in this era of strained health care finance makes for some very interesting bedfellows.

Seems like it’s been awhile since we checked in on the ongoing divorce between those former Texas Medical Center partners, Methodist Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine. Here are the earlier posts on the historic divorce between the medical school and its former teaching hospital.
In this article, the Chronicle’s Todd Ackerman, who has done a fine job covering this story, reports that Baylor’s counsel has sent a letter to the Texas to the corporation that manages the Medical Center questioning whether three Methodist activities violate the Medical Center’s guiding principle of “institutional cooperation and coordination” — operating its own residency program; operating a research facility without the affiliation of a Medical Center institution; and using its teaching beds in conjunction with New York’s Cornell University Weill Medical School, which is not located in the Medical Center. Mr. Ackerman reports that the Texas Medical Center has hired outside counsel and commenced an investigation into the matter.
Baylor’s latest salvo in the ongoing battle between the former Medical Center partners is unlikely to succeed because it, in effect, attempts to enforce a covenant not to compete, which are not favored under Texas law. Nevertheless, Baylor continues to let its bigger and better-endowed rival know that it will not slip meekly away. It will be fascinating to watch this institutional competition unfold and to assess where each institution stands in 5-10 years.

Two research giants of Houston’s Texas Medical Center are teaming up on a massive new research project focusing on the genetic abnormalities that cause cancer.
This Todd Ackerman Houston Chronicle article reports on the planned collaboration of Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center on the proposed Human Cancer Genome Project, which is an extension study to the Human Genome Project, a recently completed 10-year Baylor-led study. The goal of the cancer project is to determine the DNA sequence of tumor samples in hopes of identifying the mutations that are key to the development of cancers.
Inasmuch as Baylor has already developed the genome-sequencing research infrastructure and M.D. Anderson can contribute the tumor samples, the collaboration on the research project is a natural for both institutions. The estimated cost of the complete project is roughly $1.35 billion, which is yet another example of the huge impact that such Medical Center research projects have on the local Houston economy.

On the heels of this fine earlier series on the breakdown of the primary teaching hospital relationship between Baylor College of Medicine and The Methodist Hospital in Houston’s famed Texas Medical Center, the Chronicle’s Todd Ackerman teams with fellow Chronicle reporter Eric Berger to provide this story on the initial impact that the split is having on research planning at both institutions and the threat that the richer Methodist will pluck the prime Baylor researchers for its own research facility.
Mr. Ackerman’s reporting on the Baylor-Methodist split has been outstanding over the past year, and well-known Texas Monthly journalist Mimi Schwartz chimed in with this article ($) in the March edition of the magazine on the background and personalities involved in the negotiations leading up to the split. The Chronicle series and Ms. Schwartz’s article are both providing much grist for the gossip mill in the Medical Center community regarding this historic readjustment of professional relationships in the Medical Center.

Todd Ackerman is the Houston Chronicle reporter who has been doing an outstanding job covering the termination of the Methodist Hospital‘s 50 year primary teaching hospital relationship with Baylor College of Medicine that occurred last year. Here are the earlier posts on this historic split.
In this Sunday Chronicle article, Mr. Ackerman begins a series of articles that will explore the demise of the Baylor-Methodist relationship. Inasmuch as the Baylor-Methodist relationship was one of the many reasons that the Texas Medical Center grew over the past 30 years into one of the world’s premier medical and primary research centers, the termination of the Baylor-Methodist relationship is an important part of Houston’s history.
However, the divorce is also a reflection of the difficulties involved in sustaining even long-term business and professional relationships during this tumultuous period in the American health care industry. When those pressures overwhelm a productive relationship such as the one that Baylor and Methodist developed, the risk increases that a decline in the quality of medical care will be the ultimate result. That is an issue for which all of us should be concerned.
Update: Here is second article in the series.
And the third, which closes with this anecdote:

[A]s the squabbling between Baylor and Methodist shows no signs of abating, the best view might be the last line in a thank you note received by Dr. Richard Stasney, a Methodist ear, nose and throat specialist. It said,

“Let’s pray for peace in the Middle East ? and the Texas Medical Center.”

Todd Ackerman reports in this Chronicle article on the latest flare-up in the divisive Texas Medical Center divorce of Baylor College of Medicine and the Methodist Hospital after a highly-productive 50 year marriage. Here are the earlier posts on this increasingly acrimonious split.
The latest salvo in the divorce was the accusation by Baylor President Peter Traber that Methodist’s new medical school affiliate — Cornell Medical School — is meeting with Baylor professors to induce them to leave Baylor for Methodist and Cornell. The Chronicle reports that Dr. Traber’s letter made the following accusation:

“Cornell has been actively involved in trying to convince Baylor faculty members to leave the college. The dean of Cornell has personally visited with and/or contacted Baylor faculty members in an attempt to recruit them to the Methodist Physician Organization and Cornell faculty positions.”

Legal translation: “Knock off the bribes or else we’re going to lay a tortious interference lawsuit on your lap.”
Other than the accusations of unethical conduct, things are just fine between Baylor and Methodist, as the Chronicle article notes:

Oddly, both Traber and [Methodist President Ron] Girotto reported that recent negotiations ? they resumed last week after mediators threw up their arms in December ? were the most productive they’ve had.

On the anniversary of the first kidney transplant in Boston 50 years ago, Eric Berger of the Chronicle does a fine job in this article of reviewing the accomplishments of Houston’s Texas Medical Center doctors in contributing to the advancement of transplant procedures. Inasmuch as the Chronicle does not maintain online links to many of its articles for very long, check it out soon.

As these earlier posts reflect, a huge Texas Medical Center rift arose earlier this year between Baylor College of Medicine and the Methodist Hospital over Baylor’s decision to terminate its 50 year relationship with Methodist and make St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital its primary teaching hospital.
The Baylor-Methodist split has now officially replaced the longstanding acrimony between the world reknowned heart surgeons — Dr. Michael DeBakey of Baylor’s DeBakey Heart Center and Dr. Denton Cooley of St. Luke’s Texas Heart Institute — as the most severe professional turf war in the always tumultuous world of academic medicine in the Medical Center.
The signal for the change in the relative positions of these two heartfelt disputes was the announcement yesterday that Dr. Cooley had appointed a Baylor heart surgeon — Dr. Joseph Coselli — as the chief of adult cardiac surgery at the Texas Heart Institute.
Longtime observers of Medical Center politics expected dogs and cats to live together as best friends before such a development would ever occur.
This development will revitalize the Texas Heart Institute, which used to be one of the nation’s premier heart centers before lagging behind the top national centers over the past decade or so. The appointment also means that the Texas Heart Institute will be led by an unusual management team comprised of doctors from both of the Medical Center’s medical schools, Dr. Coselli from Baylor and Dr. James Willerson from the UT Health Science Center at Houston, who is the institute’s president-elect, medical director, chief of cardiology and director of cardiology research.
Here is the Chronicle story on this development.