In the past three months, the University of Oklahoma-Tulsa School of Community Medicine shuttered a clinic and issued contract non-renewals to its surgical teaching staff to bring down a projected $18 million deficit this fiscal year. These are part of ongoing changes.
The budget woes are specific to the Tulsa campus, and the interim dean of the OUTulsa medical school said the latest moves are getting the budget back into balance. Though some physicians who taught at the school question if the moves will ultimately hurt medical education and health care in the city.
Dr. Boyd Burns, who has been serving as the OU-Tulsa School of Community Medicine interim dean since July, said reasons for the deficit are outside influences affecting all medical institutions. Those pressures are on top of the school not having a dedicated academic hospital, typical of other medical schools, which helps control the bottom line.
