ABSTRACT
The New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center (NYH-CMC) was created in the 1920s by a formal joint agreement uniting Cornell University Medical College and The New York Hospital. The agreement has seldom been modified over the past sixty-five years and was formally re-endorsed by both institutions in 1992. Although it still comprises two separate corporations, the university and the hospital, the medical center must function as a unified center with a common mission. As restated in 1992, the mission explicitly mandates increased emphasis on an efficient health care delivery system that serves community needs. The experiences of the NYH-CMC in the creation of an academic health care network and an integrated delivery system have yielded twelve important lessons for other institutions planning for the future.
