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6 / Prologue we watched the class of 1999 march down Broad street and enter the ornate Academy building, we thought back to the events during their education that had led some to call themselves “merger guinea pigs.” And as we too entered, took our seats, and gazed around the auditorium, we thought, “What a difference a year can make.” the Allegheny corporation and its health sciences university were no longer on the scene. now, the banners on Broad street and inside the Academy of music heralded another health care corporation, tenet, another university, Drexel, and a rechristened health sciences university, once again named mCp and Hahnemann university. Allegheny’s sesquicentennial slogan, “creating the future,” we reflected, had proved to be an extraordinarily ironic one. tenet, the country’s second-largest for-profit hospital chain, headquartered in santa Barbara, California, had acquired Allegheny’s eight philadelphia-area hospitals and the health sciences university in a u.s. bankruptcy court auction in fall 1998. their bid of $345 million included $60 million for the acquisition of Allegheny university of the Health sciences, $30 million to cover start-up expenses for reorganizing the medical school, and a $33 million annual grant for the school for at least three years. the sale to tenet was contingent on a management agreement with Drexel university to operate the university’s medical and other schools, a proposal that Drexel’s board of trustees initially turned down in October 1998. But within two weeks, Drexel’s board unanimously reversed its decision, in the wake of appeals by the mayor and governor to accept the management contract and thus avert the possible closure of Allegheny’s hospitals, and an agreement by AHerF’s creditors to give the university $50 million for its endowment fund. On november 10, the effective date of tenet’s ownership, the university and hospitals restored their pre-AHerF names. By the end of the day not a single sign bearing the Allegheny name was visible. A large banner was hung from Hahnemann Hospital, proclaiming, “let the healing begin,” and music blared from loudspeakers on race and Broad streets as tenet celebrated its entry into the philadelphia health care market. speaking to a crowd of some 800 staff, local officials, and tenet executives, the company’s chief operating officer promised, “We will be here for the long haul. this is not a short term visit” (Warner, Bishop, and stearns 1998). As the may 21 graduation exercises began, we watched a new cast of university officials, attired in Drexel’s blue and gold robes rather than the blue and red colors of Allegheny, assemble on the stage. Where Allegheny university’s president, Donald Kaye, had stood a year earlier, the stage was dominated by the forceful presence of the president of Drexel and mCp-Hu, Constantine papadakis. provost leonard ross was gone, as was the medical school’s dean, Barbara Atkinson, replaced by Drexel and mCp-Hu provost richard Astro and interim dean Warren ross. Another board chairman, representing a new nonprofit corporation, was there to offer the welcoming remarks given the previous year by the Allegheny corporation’s board chair- Prologue / 7 man, William snyder iii. the new chairman, manuel (manny) stamatakis, also a member of Drexel’s board and a member of the former Allegheny university board, had been named head of the nonprofit philadelphia Health and education Corporation, created in late 1998 as the new organizational entity under which mCp-Hu emerged from bankruptcy. the faculty ranks, too, had changed. As had been true the previous year, a relatively small number of full-time basic-science and clinical faculty were present. But the number of those who attended had dwindled: some had chosen to depart for new jobs, others had not had their contracts renewed as Drexel and tenet sought to remedy the medical school’s deficit. the greatest void that day was created by the untimely deaths of two esteemed faculty and the terminal illness of a third, each of whom, to their students and colleagues, had embodied the spirit of their school and the best qualities of its teachers. Dr. Angelo pinto, assistant professor of microbiology and immunology, who had delivered the invocation at mCp’s final graduation in may 1998, died suddenly in July that year, less than two months after the commencement. Dr. suzanne Zarro, associate dean for admissions and student affairs, who had received Hahnemann’s Golden Apple Award and the sesquicentennial recognition Award at Hu’s final graduation...

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