Academic Medical Centers
A step up in health care
Community health care is built on excellence, richness and long standing tradition. The enduring connections to a university are what The University of Toledo Medical Center calls university-quality care. “We have a superb faculty and staff who are incredibly focused on quality patient care and services,” says Jeffrey P. Gold, M.D., Executive Vice President for Health Affairs and Dean of the College of Medicine at UT Medical Center.
What sets university-quality health care apart?
Fostering learning is what often helps advance quality and access to health care. “The prompt and ongoing educational soul-searching tends to bring out the best in health-care professionals and results in an improvement in the quality of patient care,” says Dr. Gold.
Additionally, the emphasis on learning helps attract not only the best and brightest students, but also care providers, nurses, technologists, physicians and surgeons. “They feel a tremendous commitment to shape the future of the delivery of health care,” Dr. Gold says. “They want to be sure the health care for them, their children and their grandchildren is as good, or better, than what we currently have.”
Clinical trials are another element that makes university-quality health care stand out. At UT Medical Center, clinical trials are done in phase two or phase three of the study, which means the safety of what is being tested is already well understood.
The UT Medical Center participates in, and runs, hundreds of local, regional and national trials. “If you or someone you know has cancer or an unusual type of disease, participating in a clinical trial may be the only way to get access to the newest medications and treatments,” Dr. Gold says. “Many of the medications that are tested will be off trial and fully FDA approved within three years and will be available in every hospital and doctor’s office across the country. But for us, they’re here today.”
Leading-edge technology is another benefit to patients. According to Dr. Gold, health centers providing university-quality care have an obligation to expose students and residents to the most modern technology, which greatly improves patient care. “The majority of new surgeries, imaging systems and medications are frequently first rolled out at academic medical centers,” he says. “In addition to constantly working with new technology, we actually build some of it ourselves. For example, we have researchers who are building new artificial discs to treat spinal disease and other researchers who are creating new prosthetic joints.”
Safety and a quick response time help make academic medical centers some of the safest health-care centers in the country. At centers that provide university-quality health care, clinical faculty members are on site 24 hours a day, seven days per week. “It really makes a difference when it comes to patient services as well as survival rates for critically ill patients,” Dr. Gold says.
The UT Medical Center is a place where the national community and physicians alike choose to receive health care for themselves and their families. “When they need routine care, they’re comfortable using community resources, but when it’s for something beyond that, they go to the nearest academic medical center with facilities and providers delivering university-quality care,” says Dr. Gold.
For more information on academic health care or to make an appointment, call (877) 451-2299.
