CHARLES RICE NAMED UIC VICE CHANCELLOR FOR HEALTH AFFAIRS

Charles L. Rice, a distinguished surgeon, researcher, and medical educator, has been named vice chancellor for health affairs at the University of Illinois at Chicago, supervising the university's hospital and clinics. The appointment is subject to approval by the university's Board of Trustees.

Since 1994, Rice has served as vice dean of UIC's College of Medicine, where he also holds appointments as professor of surgery and professor of physiology and biophysics. His appointment as vice chancellor was announced today by UIC Interim Chancellor Sylvia Manning.

"Chip Rice's experience as a physician, teacher, researcher and administrator makes him the ideal person to assume this important position and provide the leadership the medical center needs," Manning said.

Rice will succeed R.K. Dieter Haussmann, who announced earlier that he is retiring at the end of the year. Rice's replacement as vice dean will be named shortly.

"I'm proud and excited to become vice chancellor for health affairs at UIC," said Rice. "Our mission is to provide a first-class health care environment for our patients and a first-class learning environment for our students, including the cutting-edge research that distinguishes academic medical centers from other hospitals." The university's hospital and clinics have more than 400,000 patient visits annually.

"With the tremendous range of health sciences programs UIC offers, we have a unique role in meeting the health care needs of the people of Illinois," Rice added. "I look forward to working with the deans of Medicine, Dentistry, Nursing, Pharmacy, Public Health, and Health and Human Development Sciences as we develop and strengthen our programs to serve our students and the public."

Dr. Gerald S. Moss, dean of medicine at UIC and co-author with Rice of numerous research papers, said: "Chip is an outstanding administrator with a deep commitment to our patients, students and faculty."

Like many academic medical centers around the country, the UIC Medical Center has faced financial problems over the past year stemming from federal budget cuts, managed care and other changes in the healthcare industry. These have hit teaching hospitals the hardest because of the higher costs of educating physicians and developing new advanced medical techniques and procedures.

In response to a fiscal year 1999 deficit, the university hired The Hunter Group, a leading national health care consultant, to administer hospital operations on an interim basis and implement recommendations aimed at returning the medical center to a surplus by fiscal 2002.

"Academic medical centers must be able to compete in the health care marketplace if they are to survive and flourish," said Rice.

UIC's College of Medicine is the nation's largest, and many of the students serve their residencies at the medical center. One out of six Illinois doctors is a graduate of the college, as are 70 percent of the minority physicians practicing in Chicago. The college produces more medical school faculty than all but two schools in the country.

UIC is exploring possible partnerships with other hospitals and health systems to strengthen the medical center. Discussions are underway with other hospitals, although Rice cautioned that those talks are "very preliminary."

"Mergers are very difficult to effect," Rice noted. "First and foremost, a strategic partnership must serve the needs of our students, patients, faculty, and the public, and support the core missions of our institution."

Manning and Rice thanked the outgoing vice chancellor, Dieter Haussmann, for his many contributions to the medical center, including the strategic plan which has guided it since 1992 and leading the development of the new Outpatient Care Center, which has greatly enhanced outpatient services at the medical center.

Before joining UIC, Rice was professor and chair, division of general surgery, at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, from 1992-93; professor and vice-chairman, department of surgery, at the University of Washington, from 1985-92; and director of the intensive care unit at Michael Reese Hospital & Medical Center from 1977-84. He is the author or co-author of almost 100 papers, more than 70 abstracts, and more than three dozen book chapters, and is a Captain in the U.S. Naval Reserve Medical Corps. Rice earned a B.A. from the University of Georgia and his M.D. from the Medical College of Georgia.

With 25,000 students, the University of Illinois at Chicago is the largest and most diverse university in the Chicago area, and is one of only 88 national Research I universities. Located just west of Chicago's Loop, UIC is a vital part of the educational, technological and cultural fabric of the entire metropolitan region.

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