New Do School In Oregon

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Here's a longer article about it. I guess it's time for a branch campus of COMP. Pretty good location, IMO.

There's some funny lines in the article:

"What's an osteopath?

Branch of medicine that emphasizes body unity"

It also mentions that MDs and DOs both have to "pass" the MCAT. :D

theserbatron said:
"enrollment at medical schools has been flat". haha, they must be joking.
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I think what they're getting at here is that the number of available seats has been flat - ie schools have traditionally not expanded. Obviously that's changed of late.
 
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I am very happy that the profession is growing, but to quote Top Gun, I get the feeling that their mouths are writing checks that their body can't cash.

Increase in enrollment without corresponding increases in good, solid rotation sites, and good solid increases in residency positions is just asking for trouble, in my opinion at least. We already hear some horror stories from many osteopathic schools regarding their 3rd and 4th year rotations, does the problem need to get worse?
 
Lebanon!? have the people from western ever been there!?
don't get me wrong, i'm sure we need more schools, and i would love to go to school in oregon, but for the sake of anyone who might be subjected to a medical 'education' in Lebanon, i hope it doesn't go much further.
what about another Vet school?
(no offense to anyone in lebanon, but i could think of 10 towns in the pacific northwest better served by and better equipped for a medical school)
 
AKfamilyDO said:
Lebanon!? have the people from western ever been there!?
don't get me wrong, i'm sure we need more schools, and i would love to go to school in oregon, but for the sake of anyone who might be subjected to a medical 'education' in Lebanon, i hope it doesn't go much further.
what about another Vet school?
(no offense to anyone in lebanon, but i could think of 10 towns in the pacific northwest better served by and better equipped for a medical school)
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1. It's a 20 minute drive from Corvallis;

2. OHSU is CUTTING its class size; and

3. The Pacific Northwest has a tremendous shortage of rural physicians.

I live in a city with a great vet school and its graduates can barely pay their loans off. Why do we need another vet school?
 
Obnoxious Dad said:
1. It's a 20 minute drive from Corvallis;

2. OHSU is CUTTING its class size; and

3. The Pacific Northwest has a tremendous shortage of rural physicians.

I live in a city with a great vet school and its graduates can barely pay their loans off. Why do we need another vet school?
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Yep, just what I was going to post. OHSU is in some huge financial mess largely of their own causing, and they're currently going to cut their class size by at least 5 students. They're also raising tuition so even instate tuition will be about the same as tuition at private schools. They also as it is give very little preference to instate applicants and prefer to admit students from California. :eek: If there is a need, this is probably the right location.
 
How big is this hospital they are going to have? 100 beds?

I predict lots of med students being FORCED off site to do their rotations half way around the country.

No thanks :rolleyes:
 
Obnoxious Dad said:
1. It's a 20 minute drive from Corvallis;
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All the more reason to put it somewhere else. A 20 min drive to a major academic medical center and they think this town needs a new med school? ridiculous


2. OHSU is CUTTING its class size; and
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Link please

3. The Pacific Northwest has a tremendous shortage of rural physicians.
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1) Every state in the country has a shortage of "rural" doctors

2) Building new med schools does NOTHING to change this shortage

3) FSU Med in florida built a med school specifically for rural docs, and the rural shortage has gotten WORSE, not better. All those grads are running off to the big cities and it will be the same with this school.

I live in a city with a great vet school and its graduates can barely pay their loans off. Why do we need another vet school?
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What are you complaining about? There are FAR FEWER vet schools per capita than there are med schools. Last time I looked there were not 30+ new vet schools being created.

Vets have gotten lucky because state governments generally dont put any high priority on vet care the way they do for people medicine. Otherwise vet schools would be opening up like Mcdonalds everywhere
 
medblazer21 said:
How big is this hospital they are going to have? 100 beds?

I predict lots of med students being FORCED off site to do their rotations half way around the country.

No thanks :rolleyes:
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looks like it could be a good network to be affiliated with as a medical school. I would be excited about the opportunity as a pre-med.:thumbup:

http://www.samhealth.org/
 
I thought that the major academic medical center was in Portland (90 min drive) from Lebanon. I think that Boise would be a prime site for a new DO school if you wanted to stay with the NW theme. Dense little metro area with tons of rural area surrounding, several hospitals, and no medical school competition within 330 miles.:thumbup:
 
I just interviewed at OHSU and it is true that they are raising tuition considerably as well as cutting class size by about 5 students. They are also reducing their reach a bit, so there is definitely an opportunity for a new school. They do indeed give preference to OR residents, 70% of the class is IS. I was very lucky to receive an invite from OOS.

Tort reform has been repealed in Oregon, and it is actually affecting all public institutions. Don't believe everything you read though. There is a great deal of posturing going on by OHSU (i.e., doomsday scenarios) in order to pressure the legislature into passing an appeal-proof tort reform for the state. This will take about 3-5 years though (for any future appeals to the new law to be worked out) and praciticing medicine in the state will be a bit different until that law is through.

Oregon is facing a physician shortage, particularly for primary care in the rural areas where the new medical school is being set up. I actually discussed DO's a bit at OHSU and, while there is at least one DO on faculty there, there does seem to be a bit of a bias against them (surprise, surprise, since there isn't an osteopathic school anywhere nearby). My only concern if I was a new student at this school would be access to a large hospital. It seems to me that OHSU is the only game in town there. This new school must surely have a focus on rural primary care or else it will face difficulties properly training its students.
 
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RRTinCO said:
I thought that the major academic medical center was in Portland (90 min drive) from Lebanon. I think that Boise would be a prime site for a new DO school if you wanted to stay with the NW theme. Dense little metro area with tons of rural area surrounding, several hospitals, and no medical school competition within 330 miles.:thumbup:
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I don't understand starting private, $40k+ tuition schools that are supposed to train rural physicians. Whatever Michigan/OH/OK/TX did to get the state to pay for a DO school, that's what NW states need to do. Not that I think this will happen, realistically.

NW states are already paying out for MD schools, at top dollar. You might want to look into how the ID legislature contributes to ID physician training. UWash is paid to provide medical education for Idahoans, and a cohort spends first year at WSU/UI, which means UI is already paying med ed bills. Idaho also writes checks for WICHE programs in CO, NM, etc so that ID WON'T have to open its own med school. Same goes for Yakima, and for Corvallis/Lebanon. All I'm saying is that from a state funding perspective, WWAMI and OR already went shopping, and I doubt they're looking for more to buy.
 
Oregon will not fund another school. They are currently one of the worst states in regards to the amount of funding they send to medical education, no way they would be willing to add to that...especially considering OHSU is claiming to have a $30 million shortfall.
 
OHSU does give some preference to Oregonians, but not enough to really support a claim that they're looking out for the health care interest of Oregonians. Otherwise, they wouldn't routinely rejected well-qualified Oregon applicants (me! and a lot of others I've met) to accept oos students who have zero interest in practicing in Oregon, especially rural Oregon. So if they gave you their spiel about how they cared about accepting instate students, it's BS. And yes, their claims now are exaggerated, and if they were so worried about money, why the tram, the state of the art gym and the SoWhat (love that phrase) development?

At my interview at OHSU two years ago, they were saying the same things that they're saying now and talking about how they were going to have to withdraw from providing as much care as they do currently to indigent patients. Eh, same story, but now they pin the blame on some poor kid.

Yes, the tuition at these schools is a problem if their goal is to provide primary care physicians for underserved areas. I guess some students could receive NHSC or state scholarships for that, but yeah, the current price of medical education is a part of the story of why we have the shortages that we have.
 
SoWhat development is on hold and the gym is being outsourced (OHSU people will likely have to pay to use it now). One of the people I talked to said that OHSU was basically living a fairytale that was bound to end soon. I think that is what has happened.
 
Lshapley said:
SoWhat development is on hold and the gym is being outsourced (OHSU people will likely have to pay to use it now). One of the people I talked to said that OHSU was basically living a fairytale that was bound to end soon. I think that is what has happened.
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It just so odd because everyone around them saw it. I think there was just a lot of arrogance and groupthink going on at OHSU, and they tuned out any thoughts from anybody on the outside. But it's also true that Oregon has problems with funding everything.

As for DOs in Oregon, yeah, they definitely aren't as well known as they are in other parts of the country. A lot of people there equate osteopathic medicine with naturopathic medicine. But the other hospitals in Portland do have a lot of DO residents for their programs.
 
Doctor Bagel said:
It just so odd because everyone around them saw it. I think there was just a lot of arrogance and groupthink going on at OHSU, and they tuned out any thoughts from anybody on the outside. But it's also true that Oregon has problems with funding everything.

As for DOs in Oregon, yeah, they definitely aren't as well known as they are in other parts of the country. A lot of people there equate osteopathic medicine with naturopathic medicine. But the other hospitals in Portland do have a lot of DO residents for their programs.
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Oregon's problems with financing remind me a lot of the troubles we have hear in Pennsylvania. Both Philadelphia and Portland are the liberal cities within a very conservative and rural states. The state legislatures in both states seem to be in constant disagreement with the local government. Both have very different priorities.
 
Well I am not surprised. It was not going to be too long before Western hopped on the bandwagon of schools expanding to second campuses. Anything to make a buck. But there will not be any new residency/internships slots because federal funding is being cut. Clinical rotation sites are not increasing and competition with MD students for those will become fierce. AND how many DO hospitals are there in Oregon?? ZERO! Eastmoreland in Portland went bankrupt and was sold to Reed College, which tore it down.
 
Western has some rotation spots already in the Northwest for their Northwest Track program. Hopefully the Yakima school and this potential school in Lebanon will be able to start small and grow. It is a beautiful area and I like that it is affiliated with an already-existing program.
 
Archer said:
Western has some rotation spots already in the Northwest for their Northwest Track program. Hopefully the Yakima school and this potential school in Lebanon will be able to start small and grow. It is a beautiful area and I like that it is affiliated with an already-existing program.
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I have emailed them several times to ask where these supposed sites are for the northwest track.....silence.....do they even have any students enrolled in this?
 
emedpa said:
I have emailed them several times to ask where these supposed sites are for the northwest track.....silence.....do they even have any students enrolled in this?
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They started the program a few years ago, so they should already have some students in clinicals in it. I was accepted into it for the class of 2010 and talked to some people in the class of 2009 who were in it on my interview.
 
Doctor Bagel said:
They started the program a few years ago, so they should already have some students in clinicals in it. I was accepted into it for the class of 2010 and talked to some people in the class of 2009 who were in it on my interview.
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do you remember where any of the clinical sites are?
 
Well, at least they are adding med schools to an area that needs it. The new crop of allow meds schools are all in the areas with an abundence of med schools. But yeah, it's a receipe for disaster that they are increasing DO enrollment without expanding DO residencies. And what about rotations? Are they farming kids out to do that as well?

Personally, I think DO schools will only stop this uncontrolled expansion when their students can't get into residencies any more. Right now, the MD residencies are buffering DO schools from having to expand residency even as they pop out new schools like rabbits. But as MD schools expand at the same time....I think we'll going to reach a point when people just aren't going to get matched into residency.
 
DUH. Did you know Oregon has not funded WICHE for the past 5 years or more? So you're an Oregon student and you get into a neighboring state school, WICHE should kick in and you should get a tuition break. But nah, Oregon legislature hasn't deemed it worthwhile to fund their part of the pie, so you're outta luck.
I did hear this a month ago or so. I laughed out loud. Lebanon? Gee, there's a high school and a Dairy Queen there...and some very pretty countryside around Sweethome.
True that Corvallis is just up Hwy 20 (the thriving metropolis of Corvallis).... :laugh: (Speaking as a fgreenblood Duck.)
I do think it's interesting that this future location would probably interfere with OHSU's planned expansion to a Eugene campus. Of course I"ve been holding my breath for that one for quite some time.
And DrMidlife is soooo right that it's ridiculous to charge out-of-this-world (for-profit, mind you) tuition for training "rural docs". Ugh.
Will it happen? Maybe. Not with state funding though. It would have to be a for-profit private school and I have plenty of reservations about that.

Lshapley said:
Oregon will not fund another school. They are currently one of the worst states in regards to the amount of funding they send to medical education, no way they would be willing to add to that...especially considering OHSU is claiming to have a $30 million shortfall.
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Yeah, I forgot about not getting any access to WICHE money. It sucked to interview at COMP and hear that everyone from neighboring states could get like half their tuition paid, but Oregonians got jack.

You know, I really don't remember the clinical location for NW Track. I don't remember any close to Portland, but I think there some in places like Medford, Roseburg, etc.. They might have even had something with the OHSU FM residency in Klamath Falls. I've got to admit I wasn't particularly wowed by them.
 
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