GUMC Update

Federoff Reports on GUMC Financial Health

February 24, 2009

One day after President Obama signed the nation’s $787 billion recovery package into law, Dr. Howard Federoff presented a financial state-of-the-medical-center summary at the GUMC Open Forum on February 18, 2009. “Halfway through FY09, we are doing better than we were at this time last year, with all sectors doing well,” said Federoff. He thanked faculty and staff for their efforts resulting in $81.9 million in sponsored research funding to date this year—more than in comparable periods of the last four years. In addition, the total number of proposals submitted by faculty for research funding is higher than in the last two years.

Looking ahead, Federoff acknowledged that the impact of the financial crisis will hit GUMC in a number of ways – through gifts, interest rates for our financed debt, and the ability of our admitted students to obtain financial aid. He explained that some adjustment has been made in the 5-year financial plan, approved by the board in February 2009, to account for these projected shortfalls, but that given the current, nationwide economic context, some variables will continue to be unpredictable.

Federoff also updated the community on number of other activities and took questions from those who attended the forum.

Georgetown’s Board of Directors‘ Committee on Medical Center Affairs (COMCA) met on February 10, where they welcomed invited guest speaker Dr. Elias Zerhouni, former director of the National Institutes of Health. Zerhouni spoke to with the board members about clinical and translational research and his opinions on the current federal funding environment.

In addition to receiving a financial update from University Chief Financial Officer Chris Augostini, the Board approved a faculty voluntary separation and phased retirement plan at GUMC which was required by law to be distributed to all tenured faculty members over the age of 55 with 10 or more years of service to the institution. Depending on the number of faculty who are accepted into the plan (that number won’t be known until June 2009), Federoff said, the plan could save GUMC about $3 million over the next 3 fiscal years.

Also of interest to the faculty was the work, led by Assistant Vice President for Federal Relations Scott Fleming and Vice President for Planning and Enterprise Development Andy Deubler, to define potential opportunities for federal funding for GUMC that may come out of the federal stimulus package. $10.4 billion of the nearly $800 billion package is designated for the National Institutes of Health. 

”We are working with university leaders and administration to identify those areas where we as a medical center as well as a university can be most competitive,” said Federoff. “This is an effort in which all faculty members are encouraged to participate.”

Submit your news at any time to the GUMC Office of Communications at gumccomm@georgetown.edu.

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