Pennsylvania medical college integrates with Geisinger Health System

The new year has brought the final approvals to legally integrate Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Medical College into Geisinger Health System, creating the new Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine.

“Joining together a world-class health system and health plan with a young, innovative school of medicine will make our region a hub for medical education, research and discovery," Geisinger President and CEO David Feinberg, MD MBA, said in a press release. "Through this partnership, Geisinger Commonwealth will continue to realize the vision and mission of its original founders to provide high-quality healthcare to patients in the region for generations to come."

The integration plans were first announced in September when Geisinger acquired the 8-year-old school. Its statement said the integration makes it one of the few organizations to integrate a health system, health plan and medical school.

The Commonwealth Medical School has had a short but troubled existence. After being awarded degree-granting authority in 2008, financial problems led to it being put on probation by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education in 2011.

Geisinger now plans to boost revenue by creating new master’s degree programs in geonomics and health IT. For medical students, the curriculum will include an early introduction to Geisinger’s electronic health record and data analysis systems.

“Both Geisinger and TCMC have focused on developing empathy as a key skill in a changing healthcare landscape," said Steven J. Scheinman, MD, president and dean of the school. "Geisinger, through its emphasis on Caring and ProvenExperience program, which offers refunds to patients based on kindness and compassion, and TCMC through its Family Centered Program, which pairs medical students with multi-generational families in their first two years of instruction. We all believe that empathy, compassion and kindness are key to the future of medicine and look forward to creating an impact in these areas as healthcare evolves and transforms."