West Penn Allegheny medical school may be boon for region
West Penn Allegheny Health System's plans for a medical school could help keep qualified physicians in the region, experts say -- if the financially troubled health system can pull it off.
The hospital system, which otherwise is downsizing and consolidating services, is preparing to formally release plans for Pittsburgh's second medical school this spring. Start-up costs vary dramatically: from $120 million for a medical school built in Scranton to $4.5 million that Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine invested in a site at Seton Hill University in Greensburg.
West Penn Allegheny officials refuse to release the specifics of their plan, but CEO Christopher Olivia has said the University of Pittsburgh Medical School's growing international reputation could present an opportunity for the new school to train would-be local physicians who are squeezed out of Pitt. Only 26 percent of Pitt's class that began last fall hails from Pennsylvania.
Dr. Ralph Schmeltz, president of the Pennsylvania Medical Society, said statistics suggest as many as three-quarters of doctors graduating from the state's seven medical schools leave to practice elsewhere.
"If you take a look at needs going forward, it is very clear Pennsylvania is an older state population-wise, and the need is going to increase. We also have an older physician population. ... Couple that with the influx of newly insured patients who may come into the system," said Schmeltz, a retired Mt. Lebanon endocrinologist and member of the faculty at Pitt's medical school.
Dr. Donald Hunt, secretary of the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, the national credentialing agency for medical schools, said the number of new schools and expansions surged during the past four years with predictions of a physician shortage.
Start-up costs and goals might vary, but all applicants for credentialing must prove they have the resources to sustain a school.
"Every school has the opportunity to have its own mission. But one of our standards requires that schools have diverse resource flows and multiple sources of funding. They can be state, federal, university, clinical practice or research," Hunt said.
Eight proposed schools in California, Connecticut, Florida, Michigan, New Jersey and South Carolina are in the first or second phase of the organization's five-step, four-year credentialing process. Seven were granted preliminary accreditation and accepted their first classes.
Although West Penn Allegheny is not listed among the committee's applicants, Hunt said, the agency worked with 15 schools on a confidential basis over the past three years. He said some never reached fruition.
Robert Morris University in Moon went as far as to hire a director for a new school several years ago when it received accreditation to open an osteopathic school of medicine. Ultimately, however, university officials scuttled the plan when faced with an estimated $50 million in start-up costs.
The last surge of construction and expansion occurred 35 years ago when federal money became available for new medical schools. The recent surge followed the Association of American Medical Colleges' warning in 2002 that U.S. medical schools need to boost first-year enrollment 30 percent by 2015.
Pennsylvania's newest medical school, The Commonwealth Medical College in Scranton, opened specifically to alleviate physician shortages in northeastern Pennsylvania, said Dr. Robert D'Alessandri, dean of the school, which enrolled its second class last fall.
He said officials from West Penn Allegheny contacted him shortly after the $120 million school opened to discuss start-up issues.
There are less costly routes to creating a school than the one Commonwealth took. Ron Bellicini, marketing director of Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine, said the school invested $4.5 million to renovate two buildings at Seton Hill University in Greensburg into a teaching site two years ago. He declined to discuss annual operating costs at the private school but noted there is no shortage of qualified applicants. The school enrolled 109 students at Greensburg in the fall.
Unlike most new schools that grew out of universities or health systems, D'Alessandri said, Commonwealth, a free-standing medical school, was born of a community campaign to improve access to health care and was created from the ground up.
West Penn Allegheny, by contrast, has long-standing training programs for resident physicians from Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine and Temple and Drexel medical schools in Philadelphia .
Commonwealth wants to keep its students close to home. It structured classes so students -- 70 percent of whom are Pennsylvanians -- will interact with the community.
"Local residencies and curriculum is important. We work with providers in 16 counties here," D'Alessandri said.
Chuck Moran, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Medical Society, said that is a proven strategy.
"We know from our research that the best way to get physicians here is to home-grow them -- take Pennsylvania residents and educate and train them here," he said.
Schmeltz worries whether there will be adequate opportunities for additional medical students in Western Pennsylvania to obtain clinical training from physician mentors and residencies after graduation. It's a fear the medical school credentialing organization's spokesman shares as he watches schools open or expand.
"If we don't create new residencies, we don't create physicians. And residencies are expensive," Hunt said.
Still, confronted with Pennsylvania's demographics, Schmeltz said, another medical school in Pittsburgh could be a plus.
"I don't view it as a bad thing. We need more docs. We need to get the young kids more interested in medicine and science. On balance, it's probably a good thing," he said.
If Commonwealth's experience holds, West Penn Allegheny won't have trouble in attracting students.
"Last fall, we had 4,500 applications for 100 slots in our second class," D'Alessandri said. "We could increase class size beyond what we're doing, and we could easily fill our classes with qualified students."
