Managers on a Mission: Med schools begin to quantify research, teaching, and patient care

Graphic: Leza Berardone

But several administrators at the 125 medical schools in the United States feel they can implement a management system that measures outcomes in research, teaching effort, and clinical-work revenue/cost--and still preserve academic excellence. In fact, the system could bring, they say, some sorely needed accountability to their institutions.

Fiscal management has not been the strong suit of medical schools for many years, administrators say, and the bite managed care took out of a once-comfortable profit margin has exacerbated this situation.

"If tuition and state money are not sufficient for the educational mission, you have choices. You can raise tuition. You can go to the state. Or you say we're making profit on clinical [activities]--let's subsidize education. That's what happened in the ...