The changing face of academic health centers: a path forward for the University of Colorado Denver

This article describes a decade of major changes at an academic health center (AHC) and university. The authors describe two major changes undertaken at the University of Colorado and its AHC during the past 10 years and the effects of these changes on the organization as a whole. First, the AHC's four health professional schools and two partner hospitals were completely relocated from a space-limited urban campus to a closed Army base. The impact of that change and the management of its potential disruption of academic programs are discussed in detail. In the middle of this total relocation, the AHC campus was consolidated with a general academic campus within the University of Colorado system, compounding the challenge. The authors describe the strategies employed to implement this major consolidation, including changing the organizational structure and selecting the new name of the university--the University of Colorado Denver.