The transaction is expected to solidify a complex partnership that was crafted in federal bankruptcy court 3 1/2 years ago to keep MCP Hahnemann running.
After the financial collapse of the Allegheny health system in July 1998, Drexel agreed to manage MCP Hahnemann, with the right to eventually absorb it.
Under the agreement approved yesterday between Drexel and Tenet Healthcare Corp., the West Philadelphia university will operate MCP Hahnemann as a medical college within Drexel, and control appointments to a board overseeing the medical school, which will add the Drexel name.
"We have not decided if it's going to be the College of Medicine of Drexel University or MCP Hahnemann College of Medicine at Drexel University," Papadakis said later. Alumni, physicians, students and university faculty will have a say in recommending a name, he said.
Tenet, the nation's second-largest for-profit hospital chain, owns the Philadelphia-area hospitals where MCP Hahnemann faculty teach and practice, and medical students receive training.
Tenet has agreed to pay MCP Hahnemann an undisclosed sum for 20 years for "services," including faculty teaching of student residents. Tenet will pay the money to a nonprofit entity, which runs the medical school. That entity also receives money from other sources, including student tuition, patient revenue from doctors' clinical practices, and medical research funds. Income from all those sources pays the medical school's operating costs, including faculty salaries, utilities, equipment, supplies, and other expenses.
Specific financial terms of the 20-year agreement between Tenet and Drexel were not disclosed.
