Originally Released: August, 1998
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Barish to lead clinical affairs at School of Medicine

Robert A Barish, M.D., M.B.A., has been named Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. In that newly created position, Dr. Barish will lead the patient care activities of the medical school's physician faculty practice and ensure that those clinical services are of excellent quality, cost-effective, and delivered with compassion.

Donald Wilson, M.D., M.A.C.P., dean of the University of Maryland School of Medicine, says he appointed Dr. Barish to the position because he brings a wealth of experience and talent that will enable him to navigate the faculty practice through market changes and economic pressures on the delivery of health care.

"Bob Barish has a highly successful track record of leadership. His skills, both as a physician and as an expert in medical care practice and managed care, and his 14 years of leadership at the University of Maryland, will be enormously valuable for us," says Dr. Wilson.

For the past two years, Dr. Barish served as Chief Executive Officer of UniversityCARE, the clinical and research enterprise of University of Maryland Medicine, where he oversaw managed care contracting, specialty care and a primary care network that includes five outpatient facilities in Baltimore City. Under his leadership, primary care patient visits increased from 16,000 annually to 39,000, with a projected volume of 46,000 in fiscal year 1999. In addition, OB/GYN physician training was added at three of those community sites.

Dr. Barish implemented the opening of Shipley's Choice Medical Park, a multi-specialty office complex in Severna Park and helped foster the growth of a University of Maryland Pediatrics' multi-specialty outpatient center in Bel Air. Those facilities are improving the University of Maryland's service to patients in Anne Arundel and Harford Counties and enhancing the relationship with community physicians.

"As academic physicians, we know the latest in diagnosing and treating health problems, and our residents constantly keep us on our toes. Therefore, we can offer referring physicians and patients the highest quality of care," says Dr. Barish.

But he adds, "We must respond to a demanding marketplace, and to do that, we need to redesign our scheduling, billing and other processes to continue to provide excellent care in a more efficient way."

Dr. Barish joined the University of Maryland Department of Surgery in 1985 as director of Emergency Medicine, a post he held for 11 years. He recruited and kept 40 senior attending physicians with a retention rate of 98 percent over 10 years. The department also now runs the emergency departments of several area hospitals, including Mercy Medical Center, the Baltimore VA Medical Center, Bon Secours Hospital, Liberty Medical Center, and Washington County Hospital.

As head of Emergency Medicine, Dr. Barish developed the largest training program for emergency medical residents in the United States, which today graduates about 12 specialists a year. He also created dual training programs, so that residents could simultaneously train in both adult and pediatric emergency medicine or combine adult emergency training with internal medicine. The University of Maryland is the only place in the United States where these combined training programs are available.

Dr. Barish also developed Maryland ExpressCare, a successful system that provides a smooth and efficient way for community physicians to refer patients to the University of Maryland Medical Center.

Succeeding Dr. Barish as head of UniversityCARE is David G. Rorison, M.D., M.B.A., F.A.C.E.P. Dr. Rorison, who is an emergency medicine specialist, has been an assistant professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine since 1988. He has served as Senior Vice President, Integrated Delivery Systems at UniversityCARE since 1996. Before that, he was Chairman of Emergency Medicine and Vice President Clinical Services at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore.

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This page was last updated on: February 25, 2008.