Next step is site preparation across from Lebanon hospital

Western University of Health Sciences has signed a 20-year lease with Samaritan Health Services (SHS) to operate a medical school in Lebanon. The action clears the way for SHS to finalize financing and begin site preparation work this summer.

The school will be named College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific Northwest (or COMP Northwest). It is the first of several health-related facilities planned for the 51-acre campus across from Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital.

SHS will build and own the 55,000-square-foot medical school building, using a combination of debt financing (serviced by the lease) and fundraising to fund the $15 million facility.

Once roads and services are completed at the site, building construction is scheduled to begin.

The first class of about 75 medical students will start classes in August 2011. The school will grow to a maximum enrollment of 400 over the ensuing three years, said SHS President/CEO Larry Mullins

In January 2008, SHS and Western, which is based in Pomona, Calif., announced plans to partner on the development of the medical school as part of a health sciences campus in Lebanon. The campus eventually will offer a variety of health professions programs in addition to a hotel and conference center, medical office building and other support services.

Other programs under consideration for the campus include nursing, physical therapy, paramedic training and other health-related professions, Mullins said. Many of the programs would be developed in conjunction with Western. However, Legacy Health Systems and Linn-Benton Community College have expressed interest in having a presence on the campus for their own educational, clinical, outreach and research programs. Discussions also are taking place with other potential partners.

Western University President Philip Pumerantz, Ph.D., said there is a need for additional graduate health education in the nation, and a number of factors ultimately led to pursuing the partnership with SHS.

"This is an opportunity here in Oregon to put in place the elements which will, in a few short years, lead to the establishment of a multi-health-professions satellite campus of Western University of Health Sciences," he said.

In addition to the Lebanon project, SHS and Western are collaborating on a program that places third- and fourth-year medical students in a series of clinical rotations with Samaritan-affiliated hospitals. In June, SHS will welcome its first group of physician residents, who will spend the next several years in the region completing training in the areas of internal medicine, family practice and psychiatry. An orthopedic residency program will begin next summer.

For SHS, attracting physicians is a strong motivation for the partnership.

"There is a strong link between where physicians do their training and where they end up practicing medicine, so we believe these steps will greatly strengthen our ability to recruit and retain outstanding physicians to the area," Mullins said. "Most of the medical students here now are from the Pacific Northwest, and they encouraged us to establish residency programs so they can stay in this area after medical school."

Officials with Western have praised SHS's medical care from the first announcement in 2008.

Benjamin Cohen, D.O., provost and chief operating officer at Western, said that SHS is "an extraordinary hospital system that is steeped in the highest quality of health care delivery with a humanitarian approach of care. This approach also underlines the curricular and clinical experience at Western University, and we are pleased to partner with an organization that practices what we teach."

About 2,300 students currently attend Western University, which offers graduate programs in pharmacy, nursing, veterinary medicine, and allied health professions in addition to osteopathic medicine. The university will open four new programs in 2009: dentistry, optometry, podiatry and graduate biomedical sciences.

Mullins said SHS will continue to provide medical education opportunities with Oregon Health & Sciences University, Oregon State University and other higher education institutions.

SHS currently offers educational experiences to more than 900 students annually at its various locations, including the Health Careers and Training Center at Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital. The center provides classroom and laboratory space for a number of health occupations in conjunction with Linn-Benton Community College.