Oregon Health & Science University is entering a make-or-break moment, with leaders outlining a strategy to rein in losses and restore financial stability after one of the steepest deficits in recent memory.

The state’s only academic medical center reported this week that it closed out the 2025 fiscal year deep in the red, posting a $133 million operating loss — more than five times what it had planned. That marks a stark reversal from 2019, when OHSU posted a $176 million operating surplus.

OHSU President Dr. Shereef Elnahal, who presided over his first board meeting Friday since taking the job in August, said shoring up the university’s finances is urgent and mission-critical.

“OHSU is not an organization that makes a profit. … Every additional dollar we bring in is reinvested in peop

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