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Editorial: WSU medical school makes sense

Sun., Dec. 28, 2014

Washington State University has earned the chance to found a medical school, and without sacrificing Spokane’s share of the medical teaching collaborative known as WWAMI, which is centered at the University of Washington’s Seattle campus.

There is too much need and too little capacity to train the doctors the region’s growing, aging population will require in the decades ahead. For many Washington counties the need is already acute, and residents know it.

A recent survey of 2,000 residents found more than 80 percent favor a new WSU medical school; 73 percent even if state expenses increase.

Initially, the bill will be small. WSU wants $2.5 million to start the accreditation process for its program. UW will seek $8 million to expand the Spokane WWAMI, which provides medical education to students from Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho in addition to Washington.

The Legislature also must set aside a law that reserves for UW the right to train doctors in the state.

Both universities have made substantial investments in Spokane.

WSU has assembled the physical assets – the Health Sciences Building, the Nursing Building and the Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Sciences Building – that have become the hub of health science teaching in Eastern Washington. Students have been able to work in a unique collaborative that is a model for the future delivery of medical care.

UW has brought the prestigious credentials of a medical school ranked among the best in the world, and the best in the United States in preparing primary care doctors – the front line among physicians. WWAMI gives students from the region access to the best in medical education with the hope/expectation they will return home to serve the communities that might otherwise not have a doctor.

But the demand for primary care doctors far exceeds the capacity of WWAMI, which graduates only 120 students annually. UW expected to enroll 20 students per year in Spokane, but has fallen short of that goal. With more support from legislators, WWAMI would enroll 120 in Spokane each year, and WSU another 120 as it ramps up for a projected 2017 opening.

There are more than enough university graduates to fill those slots. The greater constraint will be the residencies that give students hands-on experience with patients. Accreditation for WSU would provide more Medicare funding for residencies.

After prolonged sniping over who would control doctor education in Spokane, a memorandum of understanding signed in October by WSU President Elson Floyd and UW President Michael Young resolved many issues, but some details have not been worked out.

The universities must complete that work if they want the attention of legislators with more pressing demands for their attention, and funding. Gov. Jay Inslee’s budget provided no money for more doctor training in Spokane

WSU should be able to carve $2.5 million for accreditation out of its own budget, but it would be disappointing if lawmakers won’t support that initial request. Washingtonians who do not live in King County, home of almost one-half the state’s doctors, will suffer if the imbalance in access to quality medical care is not addressed.

A WSU medical school is part of the cure.