University of South Florida has invited Lakeland Regional Medical Center to become the first member of what will become a multi-hospital system, USF President Judy Genshaft announced Wednesday.
The new entity, to be called USF Health System Inc., will create at least 200 residency slots and perhaps more, resulting in the state’s largest medical-residency program, Genshaft said.
“The real winners are our patients,” Genshaft said. “This state needs doctors.”
The board of Lakeland Regional Health Systems Inc. will be asked to vote on the invitation later this month, LRMC President Elaine Thompson said.
The collaboration goes beyond the affiliations that universities typically have with their teaching hospitals, she said. Tampa General has until now been USF College of Medicine’s primary teaching hospital; USF also has affiliations with H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, James A. Haley VA Hospital and All Children’s Hospital.
It is unclear which hospitals other than Lakeland Regional will be invited into the new system. Thompson said she hopes that all of the hospitals in which USF faculty are now teaching will become members of the new system.
