The University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health and Aurora Health Care today announced the completion of another phase in the restructuring of the UW’s Milwaukee Clinical Campus.

The changes are aimed at preserving and strengthening the 30-year partnership between the university and Aurora and creating an ideal academic environment for medical students.
As part of the restructuring, the university and Aurora are creating a new corporation within Aurora Health Care that will employ the UW faculty physicians at the Milwaukee Clinical Campus. The new corporation will be called the Aurora UW Academic Physician Group Practice.

New employment contracts were sent to physicians and nurse midwives 6 weeks ago, and the deadline for returning the contracts was Friday, Nov. 18. Forty-eight of 66 physicians and nurse midwives will be remaining with the Milwaukee Clinical Campus.

Nick Turkal, M.D., senior clinical vice president of Aurora and senior associate dean of the Milwaukee Clinical Campus, noted that the physicians who chose to sign the new contracts will retain their titles and status within the UW School of Medicine.

“We had hoped that all of the faculty physicians and midwives would decide to remain with the Milwaukee Clinical Campus, but we certainly respect the decisions that each individual has made,” Dr. Turkal said. “The university and Aurora will begin immediately to recruit replacements for those who have decided not to remain.”

Dr. Turkal said the three Aurora residency programs – in internal medicine, family practice and OB-GYN – would continue with the same number of residents as in the past. The residency programs are based at Aurora Sinai Medical Center in downtown Milwaukee, at Aurora St. Luke’s Medical Center on Milwaukee’s south side, and at a number of community-based clinics in or near downtown Milwaukee. “Aurora remains committed to retaining these clinics and continuing their work in caring for underserved communities,” Dr. Turkal said.

“The Milwaukee Clinical Campus provides an excellent educational experience for UW students, and we are pleased that the campus will be able to continue to train the same number of students as in the past,” Dr. Turkal said.

The University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health is recognized as an international, national and statewide leader in educating physicians, investigating the causes of disease, exploring innovative solutions to medical problems and translating research into compassionate patient care.

Aurora Health Care is a not-for-profit Wisconsin health care provider and a nationally recognized leader in efforts to improve the quality of health care. Aurora offers services at sites in more than 90 communities throughout eastern Wisconsin.

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Contact: Jeff Squire (414-647-3408)