UFHC 58
Page 15

S: Did Dr. Harrell try to hire younger faculty? Was that part of his plan?

P: He did actually because all of our department chairs that he hired were very
 young because we still have some, not many, we just lost some of our chairs that
 he hired. Yes, they were young.

S: Some thirty years ago.

P: Yes.

S: This is something he did at Florida where he was looking for rising stars rather
 than established...

P: Exactly. That's what he did here too. They were all very young.

S: You mentioned at one point the physicians who were in the community, were
 these doctors who were already established?

P: Doctors who were already established in the community, yes. They actually only
 started out that there were three of them in a practice, and that was the nucleus
 for this Family Community Medicine Project. After the building progressed and
 we had room for them over here, an office space for them to see their patients,
 they closed their office in town and moved over to the medical center.

S: Did they end up then with a formal academic practice here?

P: Yes, they did.

S: Was there then, knowing that he did that, makes you think that perhaps he's
 trying to figure out how to lessen tensions with local physicians anyway. I know
 in Gainesville, for instance, and that may have been a larger town, there was a
 fair amount of conflict or at least tension in the early years between the local
 physicians and the hospital. They were afraid they'd lose patients to the hospital
 physicians. Did that seem to be a problem here at all?

P: No, I don't think so. Not that I recall. First of all, they closed the hospital in
 Hershey so they didn't have that. No, I don't think that was a problem.

S: Just from what you say about those local physicians who were incorporated into
 the medical school, it sounds like that may have been a way of avoiding tension.

P: Exactly. Because the three of them had been in this community forever, so I'm
 sure the community felt this must be a good thing if these three are joining the
 staff at the medical center. Here we are still today, Family Community Medicine