Thursday evening we hosted the Galveston Town Meeting to talk about UTMB’s future plans and finances, and to engage members of the community in a dialogue about their experiences and perceptions. There were maybe 100 people in attendance, probably more than half were from UTMB. It was a good meeting, although if you’ve been tuned in to our campus Town Meetings and other Navigant-related communication, there really wasn’t anything new. Dr. Stobo spoke for about 20 minutes; he talked about the three-part mission of an academic health center, the importance of good people and our commitment to service excellence, our sources of revenue, a little about Navigant, a little about campus construction and the new facility at Victory Lakes. That was followed by about an hour of Q&A and discussion, with Drs. Sexton and Parisi participating frequently in the responses. There were questions about billing, about the pharmacy and the new federal drug program, about where we stand with telemedicine, about what happens to the uninsured as we try to change our “payer mix,” about fundraising as a source of revenue, about staffing and reorganization, about our move to electronic medical records, and a few others. It was a frank and open discussion; the time passed quickly. The next campus Town Meeting is set for June 29. It’ll be the one where we get a report on Navigant’s recommendations.