Conflicts of Interest Revealed on the UMDNJ Board of Trustees

The hits just keep on coming for the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.
The latest was reported by the Newark Star-Ledger, this time involving conflicts of interest affecting the university's board of trustees. The newspaper found multiple possible conflicts.

• Sonia Delgado, the chair of the board, is a health lobbyist for Princeton Public Affairs Group, "whose clients include Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, a teaching hospital affiliated with UMDNJ. Records show her firm also represents Bon Secours Health System Inc., a Catholic health care system ... that is currently to sell St. Mary's Hospital in Hoboken to UDMNJ."
• "John P. Ferguson is the president and CEO of Hackensack University Medical Center, also affiliated with UMDNJ...."
• "Christopher Paladino is president of New Brunswick Development Corp... which is building a new dorm on the Newark Campus of UMDNJ."
• "John A Hoffman is a managing partner of the law firm of Wilentz, Goldman & Spitzer in Woodbridge, which served as special counsel in the financing of $87.4 million for the dorm project...."
• "Donald Bradley is the Newark City Council president. The city has contracts with UMDNJ."

Potentially very significant is that the the Liason Committee for Medical Education (LCME) "found the Newark-based institution in violation of its accreditation standards because of conflicts involving business affiliations of several trustees...." Apparently, LCME rules require medical school governing boards members must have "no personal or pecuniary interest, or other conflicts of interest, in the operation of the medical school, its associated hospitals, or any related enterprises." The LCME does not simply allow members with conflicts to recuse themselves from specific board activities, "while this process may effectively manage the conflict, it does not satisfy the (accreditation) standard."
It is not too hard to imagine that a board of trustees including multiple members with conflicts of interest may not due the best job keeping a medical school (or other health care organization) focused on its mission.