Questions about the validity of hospitals' concerns for training DOs

The following letter dated on December 22nd, 2008 by Greg Smith, D.O., PhD, MDiv, FACOFP, TCOM Class 1983

I would like to respond to UNT awarding the MD degree at TCOM. I feel I have a unique perspective to speak, in that I am currently the associate Dean at our nation’s newest Osteopathic Medical School. I have 160 students that are honored to be allowed to be part of the Osteopathic profession, and proud to know that they will be entering into the one profession, who turns out a majority of their physicians as primary care providers.  Chancellor Jackson, to a man and woman they are proud of their DO degree, and have chosen it over an MD degree! We a health care crises looming, and in fact here; our nation is in dire need of primary care providers and the Osteopathic profession in general, and TCOM in particular has always met that need. Furthermore, I travel yearly to China, at the request of the Chinese government, because they see the value of the Osteopathic profession, helping them change their physician training toward primary care, where now they are only specialty driven.

As I have helped set up our Osteopathic school, in a state that for 120 years has been predominated by MD's, I have found all the private and city hospitals to being open to both my medical students and future residents in the Osteopathic profession.
 Not one hospital CEO, or medical staff here in Colorado has voiced concern for having Osteopathic physicians train and be trained in their hospitals, in fact they have been delighted that we have united with them. These include hospitals of over 600 beds, and three level one trauma hospitals, large allopathic institutions. A large percentage of my adjunct faculty are MD's and have expressed how excited they are to teach in an Osteopathic medical school, as are many physicians in other Osteopathic institutions across the United States

Talking to MD leaders in Fort Worth, I have also been told that there is not an issue having either DO students or residents in the hospitals in Fort Worth, so what is being shared to TOMA and the Alumni board by the present administration of TCOM is not the feeling in the city, by the leaders of the major institutions. With all that I have shared, I feel that there is a problem in Fort Worth, and it is not with the hospitals or the physicians in Fort Worth. Spending my last two years talking to hospitals across the Rocky Mountain Region, I have found only strong acceptance for what we do as an Osteopathic profession, and the strongly allopathic institutions are honored to work with us and be a part of the awarding of the DO degree. Therefore, if people are saying that they need an MD school for training purposes, they are not being forthright with the truth. I have found that any institution will work with those people who show integrity and have high ethics, especially to one's own profession.