A medical campus in Lebanon should start taking shape within a year, with a conference center as the first structure.

The target date for the opening of a Western University of Health Sciences medical college is 2011. That allows time to raise funds, build, and recruit faculty, staff and students, said Larry Mullins, Samaritan president and CEO.

About 50 students are expected to be in the school's first class, with about 100 faculty and staff.

Officials of Samaritan Health Services and Western University presented their plans to an invited audience of more than 100 on Jan. 22

at Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital.

Why Lebanon?

Why Lebanon? The answer is primarily people and philosophy.

They key to the partnership between Samaritan and Western is how their philosophies, as expressed in their slogans come together to form something that's "absolutely spectacular," said Philip Pumerantz, Ph.D., president of Western. The slogan for Samaritan is "Building healthy communities together." Western's is "The discipline of learning. The art of caring."

The college will attract students who care and will turn out doctors who listen with caring and compassion, he said.

A medical school is not the buildings, Pumerantz said, but the people who make it work: the faculty and students.

Dr. Benjamin Cohen, D.O., provost and chief operating officer of Western, said he began thinking about the possibilities of a partnership between the university and hospital system on a visit here. He was influenced by the people he met and described the staffs of Samaritan's three mid-valley hospitals as "dedicated, warm." He saw the garden at SLCH and discovered that patients getting chemotherapy and dialysis can look out onto it. He heard someone playing the piano in the hospital lobby. He learned about the East Linn (education program), a partnership between Samaritan and Linn-Benton Community College involving several hundred students.

"I began to feel a real affection for this place because you do what we teach," he said.

The campus

ng a virtual tour put together by SERA, Mullins showed the audience the vision for what could be on the campus eventually. It will be a green project, he said, incorporating natural landscaping and solar paneling. Buildings will be set back from Highway 20 by a plaza and then a street paralleling the highway. A central east-west green corridor will bisect the campus, with Samaritan's 50,000 square-foot conference center on one side and Western's 100,000 square-foot medical school on the other. Some four to six additional buildings will eventually follow toward the west along the corridor - one for LBCC's health education program and others perhaps for a school of nursing, school of dentistry and school of optometry. A campus library and and school of public health administration are possibilities, too.

Leaders of Samaritan and Western have talked about connecting with the city's growing trail system. Through private developers they expect to have a hotel for visitors to the campus. Ground level space will be available in some buildings for coffee shops, bookstores and other retail businesses.

The site is construction-friendly and nearly shovel-ready, Mullins said. The assistance of the city helped make Lebanon the location for the medical college, he said, and the city will continue to be important in the next several months as it develops infrastructure plans and looks at how to fund them, possibly through an urban renewal district.

From vision to reality

Talks between Samaritan and Western began about 18 months ago, with a focus on the need for more physicians in the northwest. The first cooperative effort between the two organizations brought a dozen third year medical students from Western to Samaritan starting last fall. They are doing clinical clerkships with Samaritan physicians, spending their time working alongside doctors in various specialties as part of their education.

Before the vision becomes reality, the new college must be accredited by national and regional Osteopathic Medical Associations

Nevertheless, Pumerantz said he is very confident. "No question. This is going to happen," he said.

A task force is preparing financial, academic certification and accrediting feasibility studies. Cohen expects them to be completed within six months.

Getting approval from the American Osteopathic Association to establish a residency program is a priority. Students now in their third year clinical clerkships will proceed to residency programs following fourth year clerkships. Mullins said planning is underway for a residency program to start in 2009-10.

"We need to focus on that. We need a residency program to be in place first," Pumerantz said. He expects results in a year.

Residency programs are graduate education for physicians who have finished medical school. They are paired with an approved faculty member to continue to improve their skills and knowledge in patient care. The programs last three to seven years, depending on the specialty.

Mullins, Pumerantz and Cohen declined to give any cost figures for the project.

"We have to go out to bid," Cohen said. "I don't think we can pin a number on cost."

Many details have to be worked out. Although the conference center will be Samaritan's, Mullins said Western's leaders will have input on the design so it also is appropriate for their use.

Samaritan isn't waiting for the completion of paperwork and approvals from government and medical organizations before it prepares for the medical college. Nancy Bell has been appointed Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dr. Paul Daskalos, DO, as Director of Medical Education and Residency Medicine. Bell will oversee medical student clerkships, development of residency training program and establishment of policies and procedures for the planned medical school and related programs.

Financing the project

The Western University of Health Sciences medical campus in Lebanon is to be funded privately. Both Western and its partner, Samaritan Health Services have 501(3)(c) tax exempt status, which allows them to accept donations, with tax benefits for contributors.

Bill Rauch, representing the Lebanon Community Hospital Foundation, presented Samaritan CEO Larry Mullins with a $350,000 check at the Feb. 22 ceremony and said "We're ready to get started."

Retired Lebanon pharmacist Bob Adams, who also has chaired both the Lebanon Community Hospital and Samaritan Health Services boards, is heading up the fundraising effort on behalf of Samaritan.