UW medical school looks east to expand

By The Associated Press

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SPOKANE — Officials at the University of Washington medical school will study whether to expand its programs for training new doctors in Spokane.

Local business leaders traveled to Seattle last week and met with UW medical school staff to push for the study, which they hope will eventually lead to establishment of a full program to train doctors in Spokane.

Dr. John Coombs, a medical-school vice president who oversees programs outside UW's Seattle core, said he would conduct a feasibility study on expanding in Spokane. Some third- and fourth-year medical students already live and work in Spokane.

The UW medical school, which trains doctors for Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Alaska and Washington, is trying to turn out more doctors to ease a shortage in the Northwest. Coombs said the medical school accepts about 100 applicants out of a pool of 650, most all of whom are qualified.

It's a troubling ratio when compared with other medical schools that accept about half of all qualified applicants, Coombs said. The UW is the only medical school in the region and is not able to produce enough doctors to meet demand, requiring a constant importation of doctors from other areas.

The meeting was engineered by the Spokane Regional Chamber of Commerce, which sees higher education and health care as two of the most important economic pillars in Spokane.

Supporters say most of the components for a medical school already exist in Spokane, which provides specialized medical services for a large swath of the Inland Northwest.

Spokane chamber executive Rich Hadley said landing a first-year program is virtually a certainty.

"You bet. We can do this," he said.
 
The University of Washington already has first-year medical students taking basic-science classes at universities in Laramie, Wyo.; Bozeman, Mont.; Anchorage; Moscow, Idaho; and Pullman. Spokane wants to join those ranks. About 20 students study in each of those towns.

But Spokane business leaders are looking beyond that to the more difficult step of adding a program for second-year students, which currently is only offered in Seattle.

Second-year medical students continue taking classes and begin working with doctors. Hadley said bringing some of those students to Spokane would be a triumph.

"It would basically give us a medical school," he said.

Skip Davis, chief executive officer of Sacred Heart Medical Center, called the meeting a promising start.

"What was decided was that we need to sharpen our pencils and look at financing," Davis said. "That's part of the next assignment."

A medical-school program in Spokane would be a collaboration between UW and Washington State University. Another collaboration that could come out of the talks is a first-year dental program with UW and Eastern Washington University working together.