Editorial: New medical school a real investment in area’s health
What’s this? Good news amid all of the budget-cutting coming out of Olympia? It hardly seems possible, but the state’s $2.8 billion capital projects budget includes $35 million to start building a medical school on the Riverpoint campus in downtown Spokane.
Make that fabulous news when considering that prospects for the Washington State University-Spokane Riverpoint Biomedical and Health Services Facility appeared gloomy when Gov. Chris Gregoire told a group of Eastern Washington leaders in January that the medical school was not included in her 2011-’13 capital funding budget. One of the holdups at the time, according to the Office of Financial Management, was that debt-wary state officials weren’t considering any projects costing more than $40 million. The medical school carries a price tag of $70.8 million.
But rather than take no for an answer, local government and business leaders began persuading lawmakers that the school was desperately needed. The ultimate solution was to give Riverpoint campus half of what it needs in the first year of the biennium to satisfy concerns over the state’s decreasing debt capacity.
The decision is a wise investment in the truest sense of the word. A recent report produced by the national health care consulting firm Tripp Umbach finds that training and research at Riverpoint will eventually support more than 9,000 jobs, generate more than $111 million in government revenue and carry an overall regional economic impact of $1.6 billion. Health care already accounts for one of every five jobs in Spokane County.
The potential for spinoff businesses and improved health care in the region is exciting.
Another key selling point is that the state is facing a shortfall in doctors. According to a 2010 report, Eastern Washington will need 1,000 new doctors by 2025. A new medical school won’t have the capacity to fill that void, but it can help chip away at the problem. In addition, training medical students locally increases the chances that they will stay here to practice medicine.
The “graying” of the health care work force is a national concern. In an October guest column for The Spokesman-Review, Dr. Paul G. Ramsey, dean of the University of Washington School of Medicine, noted that the state has two primary care physicians in their late 50s or older for every doctor under the age of 30. One of the keys to reining in health care costs is to expand the role of primary care physicians in coordinating care. But one of the drawbacks to that strategy is that the United States has a relatively lower number of such doctors.
So emerging from the budgetary dark clouds comes a new medical school, which should improve the region’s prognosis for years to come. This is news that should brighten everyone’s day.