Three new members have been appointed to Penn Medicine's Board of Trustees, the body which is slowly assuming a greater role in the governance of the University's Health System.
The three new appointees, who will join the current 35 Penn Medicine Trustees, represent diverse backgrounds and experiences, yet share a common goal to unify the various medical institutions.
When officials selected these new trustees, they looked for people with some connection to Penn or who have demonstrated an interest in Penn Medicine, according to University of Pennsylvania Health System Executive Vice President Arthur Rubenstein.
Rosemary Mazanet, a new trustee, earned her M.D. from Penn, and said she is happy to return to the Health System.
Mazanet said she hopes to direct the board to focus on maintaining the strength of the Medical School.
"The hospitals are only as good as the training the school provides...," she said, "If you have bad medical students, you get bad medical care."
Other appointees are Jerome Grossman, a senior fellow at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, and Jeffrey Leiden, president and chief operating officer for Pharmaceuticals at Abbott Laboratories.
"Each of these people," Rubenstein said, "brings wonderful and complementary qualities to oversee a complex society like Penn Medicine."
In 1999, the Health System suffered major financial losses and was forced to rethink its composition.
A year ago, the various entities which made up the Health System were all brought under the auspices of a new governing body -- Penn Medicine. Its board of trustees serves to offer recommendations for improvement.
The Health System is comprised of the area's four University-owned hospitals -- the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Phoenixville Hospital, Presbyterian Hospital and Pennsylvania Hospital -- as well as the Medical School and several other medical programs in the area.
Initially, any decision to change the Health System had to be approved by the University Board of Trustees. Recently, though, the University has delegated a significant amount of authority to the Penn Medicine Board.
And accordingly, Penn Medicine officials have seized the opportunity to assume greater responsibility.
Rubenstein said he hopes to see the trustees apply their outside experiences in advancing Penn Medicine in the midst of rapidly changing health care policies.
"The Board will address the steps we should take to make sure our patients receive the very best care but also to make the best strategic initiative," Rubenstein said.
Senior Vice President of Hospital Operations Garry Schieb looks forward to the changes the Board will implement.
"I believe it will really bring the entities closer together, [more] than in the past," he said. "It will help communication."
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