WVU President Mike Garrison’s letter circulated through the massive Health Sciences operation about the ongoing review of the facility buried the lead, as they say in the news business.

The REAL news appeared near the bottom of the letter where Garrison said, “…we will engage the services of R & V Associates of Pittsburgh to provide additional insights and recommendations on how best to structure and finance ourselves as an enterprise.”

R & V Associations is a Pittsburgh-based consulting firm.  The “R” stands for Ron Violi, the “V” for Vince Deluzio.  Violi made a fortune creating a chain of appliance stores, then got into health care.

Violi is credited with turning around Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.  Partnering with attorney Vince Deluzio, the two most recently pulled Wheeling Hospital out of the financial fires.

Wheeling hospital was hemorrhaging money, but in two years Violi and Deluzio turned the facility into a money maker by breaking up the old guard and streamlining the operation.

 “These guys are brilliant,” said one person who has worked with them, but didn’t want their name used.

Outside consults, if they are doing their job, mean change and change does not come easily to established institutions. 

The Health Sciences complex is a massive operation including a working and teaching hospital, a medical school, a physician’s office and system hospitals in Martinsburg and Clarksburg.  And within those major areas are dozens more departments and independent organizations. 

Garrison says there is a need for “strategic alignment.”  Apparently the major units of health sciences operate too much like “silos,” meaning either that the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing or that there’s not enough cooperation among the divisions.

Those issues affect the finances of the multi-million dollar operation.  There are a lot of pots of money throughout Health Sciences and a widespread belief that some have too much money and others not enough. 

Compounding the problems is the fact that the Health Sciences has been without a permanent leader for months.  Dr. Robert D’Alessandri, who ran Health Sciences for years, left the position at the middle of last year and the formal search for a permanent replacement is just getting underway.

But one ranking source, who was not a fan of D’Alessandri, said the problems at the Health Sciences complex have been festering for years.  “The light is finally shining in,” the source said. 

Meanwhile, the complex is filled with different department heads and boards of directors. 

I’m told it’s too strong to say there’s a “power vacuum” at Health Sciences, but one source intimately familiar with the Health Sciences complex phrased it this way:  “There’s no mechanism to resolve issues.” 

“The strains are starting to show,” said the source.

Now, in come the consultants with the massive undertaking of trying to figure out the hospitals, medical schools, physicians’ offices, researchers and their 11,000 employees work together for quality health care in fiscally responsible way.

Violi and Deluzio have a reputation of getting it done.  The question will be whether WVU and the Health Sciences leaders will have the strength and the ability to follow the recommendations. 

Garrision promises the status quo is unacceptable.