Jackson Health chair: UM relationship caused 'irreparable harm'

Planning for a closed-door meeting next week to discuss strategic planning, board chairman Marcos Lapciuc said Thursday that the Jackson Health System needs to reconsider its future because it is currently "misaligned with our academic partner," the University of Miami. Lapciuc said that the UM relationship in recent years has "created irreparable harm" to Jackson and has "hurt the poor" that Jackson serves. He said that Jackson needs to continue working with UM's medical school in areas where UM wants to partner, such as the transplant program, but needs to find other opportunities now that UM is emphasizing the needs of its own 560-bed University of Miami Hospital, which is across the street from Jackson Memorial.