UCLA Health: Bridging academic surgery with a health system community expansion

The consolidation of the health care market in the United States has been rapid and extensive.1 In order to compete and remain viable, academic medical centers (AMCs) have participated in the consolidation to secure patient volume and execute the many missions critical to an AMC's success. AMCs have a core focus on clinical care along with the complementary missions of education and research and the imperative to serve the local community. These additional priorities can make the navigation of clinical programs in communities a challenge, as competing organizations and groups are more likely solely focused on the clinical care providing a platform for more efficient care. For an AMC, deemphasizing the core values of education and research from clinical programs launched in the community is inconstitent with organizational identity. Community practices also require clinical support systems that an AMC may not have in place. Here we describe our experience with the creation of a community surgery program for University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) Health.