A West Virginia University official on Thursday defended outgoing President Mike Garrison's decision to hire a $75,000-a-month consulting firm to evaluate the health sciences division, saying the company was familiar with WVU and the north-central West Virginia region.

WVU selected R&V Associates of Pittsburgh for the six-month consulting job in late February, after a university official asserted that the firm offered the university the lowest price. Records show that a competing Chicago-based consulting firm proposed to do the work for $95,000 less.

The university said Thursday that R&V's experience in the region - the company manages Wheeling Hospital - was the main reason the Pittsburgh consultants were hired. 

"The President's Office concluded that R&V offered a valuable regional perspective that would be a good start to the restructuring process as we move forward," said Fred Butcher, interim vice president of health sciences at WVU, in a prepared statement. 

Last month, R&V delivered a scathing nine-page report about WVU's health sciences division and affiliated hospitals. The consultants allege WVU and the hospitals have "serious deficiencies" and put the lives of patients, including children, at risk.

WVU has declined to release the report, saying it contains numerous inaccuracies. The consultants stand by the document and believe it should be made public. They also have declined to release the report, citing a confidentiality agreement.

R&V initially offered to evaluate WVU and related hospitals for $125,000 a month, records show. In late February, WVU hired R&V to a contract worth $450,000 - or six months at $75,000 a month - plus expenses.

Last July, Huron Consulting Group of Chicago, the nation's third-largest health-care consulting firm with 1,600 employees, proposed sending a team of consultants to Morgantown over three months at a cost of $355,000, plus expenses. The company did not negotiate the price with WVU, a company official said, and was never hired or paid. 

Butcher said WVU leaders determined it was premature to hire Huron at the time because they first needed to analyze financial and structural issues at health sciences.

A West Virginia University official on Thursday defended outgoing President Mike Garrison's decision to hire a $75,000-a-month consulting firm to evaluate the health sciences division, saying the company was familiar with WVU and the north-central West Virginia region.

WVU selected R&V Associates of Pittsburgh for the six-month consulting job in late February, after a university official asserted that the firm offered the university the lowest price. Records show that a competing Chicago-based consulting firm proposed to do the work for $95,000 less.

The university said Thursday that R&V's experience in the region - the company manages Wheeling Hospital - was the main reason the Pittsburgh consultants were hired. 

"The President's Office concluded that R&V offered a valuable regional perspective that would be a good start to the restructuring process as we move forward," said Fred Butcher, interim vice president of health sciences at WVU, in a prepared statement. 

Last month, R&V delivered a scathing nine-page report about WVU's health sciences division and affiliated hospitals. The consultants allege WVU and the hospitals have "serious deficiencies" and put the lives of patients, including children, at risk.

WVU has declined to release the report, saying it contains numerous inaccuracies. The consultants stand by the document and believe it should be made public. They also have declined to release the report, citing a confidentiality agreement.

R&V initially offered to evaluate WVU and related hospitals for $125,000 a month, records show. In late February, WVU hired R&V to a contract worth $450,000 - or six months at $75,000 a month - plus expenses.

Last July, Huron Consulting Group of Chicago, the nation's third-largest health-care consulting firm with 1,600 employees, proposed sending a team of consultants to Morgantown over three months at a cost of $355,000, plus expenses. The company did not negotiate the price with WVU, a company official said, and was never hired or paid. 

Butcher said WVU leaders determined it was premature to hire Huron at the time because they first needed to analyze financial and structural issues at health sciences.

In late 2007, Garrison decided an outside consultant was needed, and his chief of staff, Craig Walker, reviewed R&V's proposal and spoke with the firm's leaders.  

In his statement Thursday, Butcher said Huron's proposal was an estimate, and the firm could have raised the price if the assignment was expanded to include additional work.

R&V Associates, on the other hand, promised to be more flexible without raising its price.

Garrison and Walker made the decision to hire R&V, according to Butcher's statement.

"It was their determination that R&V initially offered more value for the dollar when considering the longer span of service and wider scope of work," Butcher said.

Butcher also reiterated that R&V had an advantage because of its regional experience in the West Virginia health-care market. R&V has a management contract with Wheeling Hospital with R&V through 2010. The consulting firm was paid $2.1 million by the hospital last year.

R&V's managing director, Ron Violi, works as Wheeling Hospital's chief executive officer. His partner, Vince Deluzio, is a Pittsburgh lawyer who serves on the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's board of directors. 

R&V has been credited with cutting costs and improving patient care at Wheeling Hospital.

To contact staff writer Eric Eyre, use e-mail or call 348-4869.