UW met enrollment goal

With regard to your Dec. 28 editorial “WSU medical school makes sense”: The University of Washington has not fallen short of its enrollment goal of 20 students per year in Spokane. We have had 20 first-year students in Spokane since the entering class of 2008, and the entering class of 2014 has 40 first-year students.

In addition, our second-year pilot program had 19 students in the first year and nine students this year. Beginning next August, all 40 first-year students will stay for their second year of training in Spokane, totaling 80 first- and second-year students in Spokane.

Growing residency positions is essential to increasing the physician supply in Washington. However, medical schools do not receive Medicare funds for residency programs, hospitals do. The accreditation of a new medical school will not bring in additional Medicare dollars for residency programs. That will only come by developing new residency training in hospitals.

Medical students need hands-on clinical experience, which is a required part of our curriculum, but they are not residents. Residency training occurs after medical school and is required for physicians to be licensed and board certified in their specialty.

Suzanne Allen, MD, MPH

Vice Dean for Regional Affairs

University of Washington School of Medicine

Seattle