We have gone through this before

The following letter to UNT Chancellor dated on December 22nd, 2008 by Jay G. Beckwith, DO, MACOI

Let me extend Happy Holidays and best wishes to you and your family.  I am Jay Beckwith, DO, and would like to present a quick background on myself.

I received my undergraduate degree from Texas Christian University, attended Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine, and completed my rotating internship in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  I completed three years of internal medicine at Detroit Osteopathic Hospital and became a Fellow at Tufts Medical School in Boston, MA.  I was the first DO physician ever at Tufts Medical School.  After leaving Boston I taught and ran the GI Department of Kansas City College of Osteopathic Medicine and was voted Teacher of the Year.  I relocated to Fort. Worth, Texas and was Chairman of the Department of Internal Medicine at the hospital and taught at TCOM for over 25 years.  I was voted Teacher of the Year at your institution.  I was the last part-time employee of TCOM.  I still have students come through my service and have been involved in training residents and interns all of my medical practice.  I am Past President of the American College of Osteopathic Internists, a national organization.  I was chairman of the Fort Worth Air Power Council, a businessman’s organization limited to 200 members only by invitation, and have been the only doctor to be president of that esteemed institution. 

I write all of this not to flatter myself, but hopefully you will begin to see that the mail you have received or receiving now, and much more to come in the future, is from people with character, class, integrity, and not with a special agenda.

TCOM has arrived at its place in medicine today because of the hard work and giving of time and money of a small group of physicians and community leaders.  It has gone from a small institution to a large nationally ranked institution and is recognized as a premiere, primary care teaching institution in America as the government HMOs, and the public have asked us to do.  It has the possibility to be the #1 primary care teaching facility in America with the proper leadership.

Under recent leadership, that is not happening, and many distinguished physicians have left and many still at the institution are very unhappy
with their leadership and with the status of the institution.  These people are obviously not going to speak out but I can speak for them because I know them intimately, my office is located right across the street.

I am speaking for 3000 DO physicians, the public, most of the patients in Fort Worth and surrounding areas, and most of the community when I say you are taking a great and unique institution and moving to an area that the great majority of Texans and families do not want.  I will soon be sending you and your Board a detailed letter from A to Z which will include much more, and I hope you will read carefully.  I would be more than happy to speak to your Board at any time, any place, anywhere about the history, the past, the present, and the future of this great institution.  Jeter Nolan came to me and spoke to me privately about moving the school, and we prevented that when he was Chancellor.  Also MDs wanted to take over the school and Speaker Gib Lewis prevented that also.  We have gone through this before.  As we become bigger and more precious, obviously more people want us.  The great thing is that we have become so unique like the Northside, like the Museum and Arts District, like Fort Worth, and why anybody would want to change it is beyond my strongest imagination. 

I have a lot of facts that will help you make this decision that you are about to make.  By the way, Scott Ransom called me two weeks ago and I know most of the people on the committee, except for two, I have not seen a more stacked committee.  It is noted that they are adding more people on all of a sudden because they are aware of this problem, and hopefully the Board of Regents is aware of it.  I asked Dr. Ransom if I could come and sit in on the Committee and he said he did not think there were enough seats, so I told him I would stand in the back, and he had no answer to that.  I have spoken to him subsequently once or twice about it, but I am sure that is not likely to happen.  What I would like to see are people of impeccable reputation that understand what most Fort Worth residents really want.

It is critical that you have the whole story by people with impeccable reputations and credibility.  It is vital that you not just be another medical school, but that you be unique and you continue to develop more uniqueness, and with the correct leadership you can be the number 1 ranked primary care institution in the country, and we know how to do that much better than the MDs and I will show you many ways to do that with the problems that you present.  There are many very simple solutions, and I would be glad to discuss that with your Board and with you. 

In conclusion, I hope you have a great holiday and I anticipate an honest dialogue concerning this matter with all parties so that the University of North Texas Health Science Center will not make a huge mistake here.