All of the hospitals are meant to work in symbiosis, with each developing its own specialties while referring patients in the network to maximize their care, as the University of Maryland Medical Center, in particular, conducts cutting-edge research. All of the doctors at the medical center, one of the nation's oldest teaching hospitals, are faculty members at the university's medical school.
But many had come to see the system's parts as moving in different directions.
"It was somewhat adversarial, instead of being collaborative," said Dr. Reuben S. Mezrich, chairman of the radiology department at the medical school. "It was like people facing in opposite directions."
Joseph D. Tydings, a former U.S. senator whom O'Malley appointed to the board a week ago, said the system's leaders had focused too much on personal agendas.
"One of the key things is to work with the medical institutions," he said. "It's not a separate empire operated by powerful people on a board of directors headed by powerful businessmen."
Some critics say a shroud of privacy surrounding the medical system has allowed problems to fester. Arnold M. Jolivet, who sued the system to obtain business records because he believes it should follow state procurement laws requiring participation on contracts by minority businesses, contends the legislature created the system without any "real oversight."
"It's not surprising that the system is self-destructing largely because the watchdogs, the General Assembly and the governor and the board of directors, allowed things to go on," said Jolivet, president of the Maryland Minority Contractors Association.
A federal judge ruled this year in Jolivet's suit that the medical system is subject to Maryland's Public Information Act. But in a separate ruling, the judge found that the system is not subject to the Open Meetings Act. Members of the public were not allowed to attend Wednesday's meeting and were instructed by staff to return to the building's lobby.
laura.smitherman@baltsun.com
