Editorial Misrepresents Watson’s Legacy

Dear Editor,

This letter responds to your recent editorial regarding Joseph W. Watson’s retirement. Overall, the editorial demonstrated extreme shortsightedness. I graduated from UCSD in 1999 and remain active in the campus. For evidence of Watson’s positive influence on UCSD and student life, one need only spend 20 minutes on campus to witness some of the many things he pushed forward for students. Next time you eat lunch in Price Center, workout at RIMAC, go to an NCAA Division II game or hang out at the expanded Student Center, thank Watson. And next time you have My Chemical Romance, Cypress Hill and other Sun God groups come to La Jolla to entertain you, thank Watson for supporting the incredible growth of the events at UCSD. I was very involved in student government while at UCSD and I personally witnessed Watson put his career on the line in the face of opposition to support student interests. While it is always impossible to make decisions that all students support, Watson’s influence at UCSD has improved student life in ways most do not recognize.

— Joe Leventhal

Thurgood Marshall College ‘99

No Patient Left Behind at Med Center

Dear Editor,

I want to clarify a few points about UCSD’s long-range plans for its health care system, as discussed in the Thursday, Oct. 5 article “Study Says Bed Transfers OK for County Hospitals” by Charles Nguyen.

UCSD is the region’s only academic medical center. Unlike other health systems in town, UCSD’s multiple responsibilities include: training future physicians and pharmacists, conducting basic and clinical research to improve health and serving the public through patient care and community outreach. Our hospitals and physician practices exist to support all of these missions, and our planning must take all of these missions into account. 

Our plans for the next 20 ­to 25 years were designed to strengthen our ability to fulfill these missions and to bring the UCSD Medical Center into the top ranks of academic medical centers. We believe San Diego and UCSD deserve no less.

As more and more care is provided on an outpatient basis, we have already expanded these programs to respond to patient demand and to provide an appropriate setting for our students to learn the type of medicine they will be practicing in the future.

After consolidation of hospital beds in a campus-based hospital in 2025 to 2030, we will continue to offer a full range of primary and specialty outpatient services in Hillcrest and Thornton. Our patients will continue to receive state-of-the-art care at both sites; no patient will be left behind.

We also have a commitment to serve a broad spectrum of patients in our community, including the under- and uninsured, as should all health care providers. We are proud of our longstanding commitment to helping those who are underserved. UCSD currently cares for 38 percent of the region’s indigent patients although we care for only 8 percent of San Diego patients overall. In addition to the care provided in our own hospitals and clinics, our students and residents spend hundreds of hours volunteering in the community through our student-run free clinics and other programs. Our collaborations with community clinics throughout the county also provide invaluable opportunities for our faculty and trainees to work with the underserved. If anything, our commitment to serve the underserved is increasing. In September 2007, we will launch a new initiative, called the Program for Medical Education in Health Care Equality, which will add 12 students to our entering medical school class. This program is being designed specifically to train physicians to provide health care services to underserved and at-risk populations. 

We are confident that with the changes we are undertaking, we will be fully responsive to our patients’ and the community’s needs while improving our ability to provide the best training experience for our students and residents, who are the future leaders in medicine and science, and better support our faculty’s important basic and clinical research efforts. 

— Maria C. Savoia, M.D.

Vice Dean for Medical Education, Professor of Medicine