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Rounds With Ray Dear Colleagues, As my first month as your president comes to a close, I am writing to all members of the MUSC family. This is the first of what I hope to be a regular series of letters to you. This correspondence is intended to keep you informed about issues of importance to the university community.   Dr. Ray Greenberg First and foremost, please know that it is a great privilege and honor to represent you. As I travel around the state, I encounter an overwhelmingly positive reception. Our fellow South Carolinians are very appreciative of what we have accomplished at the Medical University. At the same time, I am promising, and they are expecting, even greater accomplishments from us in the future.   At a time of uncertainty in the health care arena, why should we paint a rosy picture of our future? In my opinion, the answer to this question is found in the strengths of our current programs. On the educational front, several of our programs are highly rated nationally, and we are working to build excellence in our other programs. In the area of discovery, we are the only research university in South Carolina to exceed $100 million per year in extramural funding. With respect to clinical programs, we continue to receive accolades, most recently the 1999 Consumer Choice Award from the National Research Corporation as Charleston’s most preferred hospital.   As we celebrate these successes, we need to acknowledge the challenges ahead of us. One immediate priority is to implement the authority status for our medical center. We are working toward a target date of July 1, 2000 for transition. Just last week we passed one of the milestones for this process when the Budget and Control Board approved the proposed employee grievance policy. As we continue to work on other steps toward implementation, we also are seeking some legislative clarification from the General Assembly. We are privileged to host Gov. Jim Hodges on campus today. Among other items we will discuss with him is the hospital transition.   A second area of challenge is to assure adequate funding for health care services. We are attacking this issue on several fronts. On campus, we are making every effort to reduce costs and collect revenues. In Columbia, we are educating our representatives on the financial issues and asking them to devote all of the tobacco settlement funds, as originally intended, to health care expenses. This week, I traveled to Washington, D.C. to meet with the South Carolina representatives. My agenda, among other things, was to request that they pass legislation to reverse some of the untoward effects of the Balanced Budget Act (BBA) of 1997. The BBA was responsible for large reductions in reimbursements through both the Medicare and Medicaid programs.   In addition, we are working hard to try to improve our campus facilities. This week I testified before the Higher Education Subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee to request funding for new and renovated facilities. My arguments were strengthened by a Commission on Higher Education (CHE) review that ranked three of our requests among the top 10 priorities statewide. These projects include a new building for the College of Dental Medicine, renovations to the College of Pharmacy and a new research building. Our fourth project, a new building for the College of Health Professions, was also highly rated by the CHE. At the moment, I am optimistic that our facilities requests will receive favorable review.   There are many other topics to discuss, but I will save those for another letter. Let me close by restating my pride in serving you. Please know that I will do everything within my power to advance our mission. If at any time I can be of help to you, please do not hesitate to let me know. With best wishes,   Ray Greenberg President