New medical school planned in the mid-Willamette Valley
Tuesday, January 15, 2008 1:42 PM PST
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Three-year-old Kloey Wettstein, Ontario, wanted to make a big snowman but was unable because of fluffy snow conditions. After an hour her mother, Jennifer Wettstein went out to check on the snowman making progress and discovered that Kloey and her father, Joey Wettstein, had made what Kloey named my Mr. Really Tiny Snowman Friend. Mr. Really Tiny Snowman Friend stood a proud ten inches tall. Warmer temperatures spelled the end for Mr. Really Tiny Snowman Friend. However, his eyes, buttons, carrot, arms — not to mention the memories of a three-year-old — are still with us. |
CORVALLIS (AP) — A California university and a Corvallis-based hospital operator plan to place a medical school in the mid-Willamette Valley city of Lebanon.
The 51-acre campus would be built across U.S. Highway 20 from Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital, with a pedestrian bridge linking the two, the Gazette-Times newspaper reported.
Larry Mullins, president and chief executive of Samaritan Health Services, said he expects construction to start by 2010. The school would accept about 50 students a year, starting in 2011, and eventually expand.
The school will be affiliated with the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific, a division of Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona, Calif.
A task force formed by Western and Samaritan will examine financing and cost estimates. Officials have scheduled a press conference for next Tuesday in Lebanon, where more information is expected to be released.
‘‘This is an opportunity here in Oregon to put in place elements which will, in a few short years, lead to the establishment of a multi-health professions satellite campus of Western University of Health Sciences,’’ Western President Philip Pumerantz said in a statement released Monday.
Plans also call for a conference and events center, a hotel and restaurant complex, a medical office building and additional buildings to house programs in medical specialties.
The goal of the campus would be to help meet increasing demand for medical services. Enrollment at U.S. medical schools has been flat, but the population is growing, and many doctors are nearing retirement.The Association of American Medical Colleges has called for a 30 percent enrollment increase by 2015.
Expanding medical education in Oregon would also help the state address its own needs.
Studies have shown that doctors are more likely to practice in the state where they went to medical school or did their residency.
Oregon Health & Science University in Portland is the only medical school in the state. Mullins said putting one in Lebanon will expose future doctors to that area of Oregon.
‘‘If students come in and it’s a good experience, an enriching experience, the hope is that they’ll say, ’Hey, this is the kind of place I want to start my practice,’’’ Mullins said. ‘‘We won’t be selling just Lebanon. We’re selling the mid-valley.’’
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