First Into the Lifeboats: Protecting Medical Student Education During the Hahnemann University Hospital Closure.

ABSTRACT

The announcement of the closure of Philadelphia's Hahnemann University Hospital in June 2019 sent shock waves through the academic community. The closure had a devastating impact on the residents and fellows who trained there, the patients who had long received their care there, and faculty and staff who had provided care there for decades. Since its beginnings, the hospital, established as part of Hahnemann Medical College in 1885, was a major site for medical student education. The authors share the planning before and actions during the crisis that protected the educational experiences of third- and fourth-year medical students at Drexel University College of Medicine assigned to Hahnemann University Hospital. The lessons they learned can be helpful to leadership in academic health systems in the United States facing a diminishing number of clinical training sites for medical and other health professions students, a situation that is likely to worsen as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to weaken the health care ecosystem.