Backers of medical school in Spokane say UW can no longer meet needs- Second school proposed

The University of Washington provides the only medical school for residents of the state, plus Alaska, Montana, Idaho and Wyoming.

By Nicholas K. Geranios
The Associated Press

Now there is a growing effort to create a second medical school in Spokane. Such a school, supporters contend, would help cure the city’s sagging economy and provide needed doctors in underserved areas.

It is a sensitive topic, because no one wants to criticize the UW School of Medicine. But proponents say the UW cannot produce enough doctors to serve an area that has 9 million people.

"The University of Washington is doing a wonderful job, but somehow we need more of it," said Dr. Gary Newkirk, of Spokane, who is pushing for a medical school in Spokane. "The region has outgrown the medical school."

The U.S. has 125 medical schools, but the UW is the only one in an area that runs from Portland to Reno, Nev., to Grand Forks, N.D.

"I don’t think you can find another place on the planet where you have to go so far to medical school," Newkirk said.

Supporters of a Spokane school say the U.S. has 6.2 medical-school openings per 100,000 residents. But the UW offers just 2.1 medical-school slots per 100,000 residents.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Talmadge and Spokane mayoral candidate Tom Grant have seized on the idea, saying a medical school would boost the area’s economy. Talmadge wants the Legislature to spend $500,000 to study the idea.

The Washington State Medical Association this year also endorsed studying whether the state needs another publicly funded medical school. Last year the association rejected the proposal.

A medical center

Medicine is a huge business in Spokane. A Washington State Hospital Association report recently found that health care accounts for 20 to 30 percent of the community’s economy and about 10 percent of its employment. Spokane’s numerous hospitals and specialty clinics draw patients from Montana to Moses Lake.

The idea of a medical school has been around for years but was rarely openly discussed.

Even now, the Spokane Regional Chamber of Commerce has declined to embrace the notion of a medical school, saying only that there should be a look at training more doctors in Spokane under existing programs, director Rich Hadley said.

"It is not imminent, in any stretch of the imagination," he said.

The UW School of Medicine opposes the idea, saying it already provides medical training in Spokane and other Northwest cities through its unique WWAMI program.

That five-state program — Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho — came into existence in the early 1970s as a way for low-population states to train doctors without the huge costs of opening a medical school, said L.G. Blanchard, a UW spokesman.

The UW admits 175 medical students in each class, with the various states each guaranteed a certain number of slots for their students in exchange for paying the difference between resident and out-of-state tuition, Blanchard said.

Cost disputed

The UW supports any study that concludes that more public support is needed for medical-school education, he said. But that doesn’t include a medical school in Spokane, which Blanchard estimated would cost $500 million and years to create.

"We have in this state one of the finest medical schools in the world and there is no reason to start a second," Blanchard said.

Newkirk does not believe it would take a massive infusion of money. Spokane’s large health-care industry and numerous universities already provide much of the infrastructure for a medical school, he said.

Much of the work would be to tie the pieces together into a cohesive whole, said Newkirk, who was involved in creating the WWAMI program.

"A lot of us feel we can just connect the dots," Newkirk said, and create a school to educate 30 to 50 prospective doctors.

He noted that many students who can’t get into U.S. programs attend relatively modest medical schools in other countries. Those students complete their residencies at hospitals in the U.S. and are licensed as doctors in this country.

"What would it take to start an offshore medical school in Spokane?" Newkirk said. "Maybe we should take a little island on Priest Lake and put a school there and make it offshore."

A medical school in Spokane would not compete for research dollars with a national leader such as the UW, Newkirk said. It would concentrate on producing family practitioners, especially for underserved areas, he said.

The limited number of openings at the UW School of Medicine, which was founded in 1946, denies opportunities to many Washington students, Newkirk said.

"We get our bright young people who live in this area and want to go to medical school, and they have to go to Omaha to do it," he said.

Copyright © 2003 The Seattle Times Company

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/education/2001774994_medschool25m.html

****************

Good Medicine

Commentary by Rob Brewster in the Pacific Northwest Inlander

As our community continues to struggle with job loss, business growth and retention, it’s important to search out new, modern concepts to help stimulate the economy and create a region that is economically sustainable and profitable for all those who choose to do business here. Spokane needs a regional plan for creating economic diversity, economic sustainability and prosperity.

It’s vital that we focus on something Spokane already succeeds at — medicine. It’s time to talk about starting a medical school right here in Spokane.

The concept of growing Spokane’s great medical community would develop Spokane into a hub for the health sciences in the vast region between the Cascades and Minneapolis.

In the late 1800s, Spokane opted to receive a Tuberculosis Sanatorium over a state university (WSU). Today, we must finally make strides to recover from what proved to be a colossal error and start developing a regional plan for education that will in fact include more graduate and doctoral programs. Spokane needs a medical school: It’s possible and it’s an excellent idea.

When economies develop, there is very little direction given by leadership and outside forces. Often, business leaders and educators simply stumble upon ideas and implement them through the necessary channels. In Spokane, we need to draw upon our skills as a strong medical community.

We are fortunate to have a flourishing biotech institute in Spokane, which will reap wonderful results in the coming years. A medical school, of course, would have a symbiotic relationship with a biotech community. Of course, a medical school is more general than the highly specific biotech industry; therefore, it could generate all sorts of new ideas, business concepts and even non-medical products.

Focusing on general medical development will open more doors and provide greater economic stability, because it provides and supports the basics. When various areas of the economy are flat or declining, medicine will always be a growth industry.

Anyone in medicine can tell you that the growing shortage of qualified healthcare professionals is critical and unprecedented. A solid medical program doesn’t just provide physicians, but it becomes a training program for top-quality allied health and nursing professionals of all kinds. Our great hospitals in Spokane can only benefit from such a sharp economic tool. Spokane’s medical community is hurting from cuts in Medicare reimbursements, continued unfounded litigation and the bureaucratization of most modern insurance companies. Spokane cannot afford to take the back seat, losing more doctors to other states and hemorrhaging intellect. Spokane must develop and operate a medical school that will instill the sense of preeminence in our community both by attracting new talent and by retaining existing "brains."

The fact is, there are only 122 medical schools in the United States. Coupled with the proposed medical school, moving the Medical Research Institute idea forward will make Spokane the forerunner in medical sciences, a strategy that is essential to the kind of economic future Spokane deserves.

There is little question that there are obstacles to a medical school — governance and funding being just two of them. But these issues can be solved. The legislature has enacted a large capital proposal for higher education. A medical school can be funded from this source. Olympia can also insist that the UW Medical School work with Spokane on this institution. Even without the obvious funding, the money is available — 1 percent of the north/south freeway alone would pay for a new medical school. Eventually, with the right economic powerhouses, Spokane can afford the luxury of having perfect streets.

This is a pivotal moment in the life of Spokane. So many important economic elements are either available right here, right now or have started coming together in the past decade. But now is the time to cement our future as a city with a viable economy. One of the key components to this "sustainability" is the creation of an educational facility that will stimulate intellectual thinking in our community. A medical school is one of the ideas that I feel is vital, exciting and — at this moment — ripe with possibility.

To move forward, we still need dynamic, creative and energetic leadership. Unquestionably, our community needs to attract and retain more highly educated professional people. For that to happen, the first steps require that we have better leadership in our business community and most certainly in local and state politics. Even more important than the obviously essential dynamic, creative and energetic qualities of the ideal leader, we must develop or discover a leader capable of unifying these groups.

It’s time that we in the Greater Spokane Region break our pattern of negativity. It’s time to put all our energy into staying focused and productive. With a renewed sense of community-wide cooperation, Spokane can become a place we’re proud of, and a place where our next generation will choose to stay and make their home.

Rob Brewster is a real estate developer who has renovated buildings around downtown Spokane, including the Holley Mason building.

http://www.inlander.com/commentary/329389644235982.php