THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Thursday, March 16, 1995               TAG: 9503160402
SECTION: LOCAL                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY MARIE JOYCE, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: NORFOLK                            LENGTH: Medium:   51 lines

SURGICAL GROUPS ENROLL IN EVMS AS MEMBERS OF CLINICAL PRACTICE

Two local surgeons' practices have signed on with Eastern Virginia Medical School as members of the school's clinical practice.

The move - which school officials hope will be the first of several such partnerships - is a protective measure, designed to ensure the survival of the medical school and the doctors' practices in a time of changing health care.

On Wednesday, EVMS announced the affiliation of Neurosurgical Associates, a group with offices in Norfolk and Virginia Beach. The doctors in that practice will become part-time, paid faculty members, and Dr. Jerry O. Penix, head of the group, will become chair of the school's division of neurosurgery.

Last week, Vann-Atlantic Orthopaedic Specialists, a group with 15 surgeons in Norfolk and Virginia Beach, signed on to form the new division of orthopedic surgery.

Doctors in the two practices had been serving as faculty volunteers.

On the business side, they will fill in the gaps in Eastern Virginia Medical School Health Services, the multidisciplinary medical practice composed of the school's full-time clinical faculty members. More than 40 percent of the school's income is drawn from this practice.

In turn, the doctors will gain, among other things, patients through affiliation with EVMS Health Services. The practice is being restructured so it can thrive in a medical business that increasingly emphasizes managed care.

The Vann-Atlantic doctors will continue to work out of their offices. The school's one full-time faculty member in orthopedic surgery will work out of Vann-Atlantic's office.

Neurosurgical Associates also will maintain its offices but will start seeing patients at EVMS' offices on the Norfolk campus.

In 1993, the school lost accreditation from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education for residency programs in orthopedics and neurosurgery. A residency is a period of post-graduate training in a particular area of medicine.

However, the school has no immediate plans to use the new faculty members to revive these graduate programs, said William K. Ginnow, associate dean for health affairs.

At a time when demand for surgeons and other specialists is dropping, the school needs to focus its efforts on residencies in generalist medicine, he said. For now, the doctors will concentrate on teaching medical undergraduates, he said. by CNB