WWAMI-RIDE EDUCATION EXPANSION I
WWAMI-RIDE EDUCATION EXPANSION IN SPOKANE
The
University of Washington, Washington State University and Eastern Washington
University - working cooperatively - request $12.8 million in new operating
dollars for the first major expansion in decades of programs to educate more
state residents to become doctors and dentists.
For state operating dollars, The WSU portion of the
operating request is $7.35 million to support expansion of UW Medicine and
Dentistry in Spokane The University of Washington is requesting $4.5
million for additional capacity to offer the programs in Spokane.
Eastern Washington University is requesting $1 million in funding to help
provide the program to educate dentists in Spokane.
There are some state capital
construction impacts:
University of Washington is requesting $7 general fund state dollars to create
new capacity and will make other investments with other institutional funds.
WSU will use its minor works funding for some facilities modifications
(about $500,000 to $800,000.) EWU will be requesting $152,000.
Printable Adobe PDF version
Shortages Predicted in
Health Care Workforce
- National groups warn of current and impending
shortages. The Association of American Medical Colleges, the American
Medical Association, the Council on Graduate Medical Education and the
American Dental Education Association all predict shortages of physicians
and dentists.
- Several key factors contribute to this shortage:
- Training of new physicians and dentists has not
kept pace
with population growth;
- The national population is aging—the number of
people over 65
will double between 2000 and 2030; and,
- The healthcare workforce is aging -- one in three
physicians is
over 55 and likely to retire by 2020; half of Washington’s dentists
are expected to retire by 2013.
- Medical education in Washington has not increased in
35 years and dental education has not increased in 20 years although the
population increased from 3.4 million in 1970 to 6.3 million by April 2006.
- Significant physician and dentist shortages are
already seen in many areas of Washington.
A Creative and
Collaborative Solution
·
The University of Washington, Washington State University and
Eastern Washington University, together with key business leaders and
practitioners in the Spokane area, have developed a plan to address predicted
physician and dentist shortages in Washington. The proposal calls for:
·
Expanding UW’s decentralized medical education program, WWAMI
(Washington-Wyoming-Alaska-Montana-Idaho), to train more physicians. WWAMI
successfully works with local universities to provide first-year science
coursework for medical education and then brings the medical students to the
Seattle campus for an intensive integrated organ-system and clinical curriculum
during second year. The third and fourth years of medical school give students
the opportunity to choose clinical experiences throughout the region.
·
Creating a new decentralized dental education program (Regional
Initiatives in Dental Education or RIDE) program in the Spokane area would help
to address the need for more dentists.
An Efficient,
High-Quality, Cost-Effective Solution is Key
- The UW’s regional WWAMI program has a 35-year track
record of introducing, training and encouraging medical students to practice
in rural and underserved communities.
- Creating a new, stand-alone medical school is
expensive. Recent experience in Florida at $155 million to start a new
medical school dwarfs the $21 million in this proposal.
- Leveraging the existing WWAMI administrative
infrastructure and modeling a similar approach for the new RIDE program
would cost $7.9 million in one-time capital costs and $12.9 million in
operating and start-up costs.
- Utilizing existing facilities at Riverpoint, rather
than building new ones, is
cost-effective.
- Securing new faculty for the program creates an
unprecedented opportunity for increasing biomedical research and
technology in the Spokane community.
- WSU has made significant progress toward becoming a
biomedical research center. New faculty for the program will augment the
existing research structure and foster collaborative research efforts with
UWSOM Seattle-based faculty.
Community Partners are
Critical to Success
- Community partnerships are critical to the success of
the expansion proposal. The unprecedented momentum created among higher
education, business leaders, and healthcare professionals is necessary for
successfully addressing the shortage—and highlights the cooperative nature
of the proposal.
- Partnerships with practicing physicians and dentists
in the region are needed to help train incoming health professionals. These
partnerships contribute in key fashion to the next generation’s interest in
establishing practices in central and eastern Washington. The WWAMI program
has a long track record of collaborating with professionals throughout the
region. The School of Dentistry also has a strong history of collaborating
with practitioners to train dental students in the region, and will expand
such efforts under the RIDE program.
Public Policy Action Can
Make the Difference
- Known shortages of physicians and dentists are
approaching and the public expects access to quality health care. The
Legislature faces the important policy decision whether to keep access flat,
thus increasing severity of physician and dentist shortages as the
population grows and aging professionals retire, or to respond and fund this
“high demand” request. The expansion proposal also increases opportunities
for training local Washington students. This proposal is the most efficient
and cost-effective, high quality choice to address that shortage in our
state.
SUPPORTERS
Spokane Regional
Chamber of Commerce
Spokane County
Medical Society
Spokane District
Dental Society
Eastern
Washington University
Washington State
University
University of
Washington
Washington State
Medical Association
Washington State
Dental Association
Washington Dental
Service
Washington Dental
Service Foundation
Washington
Academy of Family Physicians
Sacred Heart
Medical Center
Empire Health
Systems
