College of osteopathic medicine to locate in city
Osteopathic medical school in Va. plans to open branch here
By
Dudley Brown,
Robert W. Dalton &
Jason Spencer
and JASON SPENCER
Published: Thursday, May 28, 2009 at 3:15 a.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, May 28, 2009 at 1:06 a.m.
The Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine plans to open its first branch campus in Spartanburg.
The four-year post graduate medical school will be near Spartanburg Regional Medical Center and Wofford College. Dixie Tooke-Rawlins, VCOM's dean and executive vice president, said school officials had not determined whether they would buy an existing building or construct their own.
She also said negotiations were ongoing for a physical rehabilitation center.
"We're certainly looking at places close to the hospital and places close to the other academic institutions," she said. "I suspect we'll have our faculty work together on research with the other academic institutions."
Tooke-Rawlins said if the process of gaining the necessary approvals goes smoothly, the school would open in the fall of 2011. The Spartanburg branch could eventually employ about 100 full-time faculty and staff.
Ingo Angermeier, SRHS' president and CEO, said VCOM initially planned to establish this branch in Charlotte, N.C. SRHS learned of those plans while VCOM officials were in Spartanburg in February. Angermeier said the hospital and VCOM started to discuss how Spartanburg could provide a more rural setting, which the program prefers. He said the hospital brought business, education and political leaders together to attract VCOM to Spartanburg.
"Within three weeks we organized all of those folks and gave (VCOM) a full tour of what was available in Spartanburg," Angermeier said.
Spartanburg Regional spokesman Chad Lawson said the hospital system has had a relationship with VCOM for six years, training 19 students during their junior and senior years. He said the decision to build a college here is "an extension of an already successful program."
"This exciting development will benefit Upstate patients for generations to come," Lawson said in an e-mail. "The entire community will benefit from both the addition of a strong graduate academic presence and a huge economic impact as well."
VCOM's primary mission is training primary care physicians and to serve rural communities and areas that are underserved. Its main campus is in the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center in Blacksburg, Va.
Lawson said osteopathic care and education emphasizes preventive medicine and teaching manual therapy for musculoskeletal problems.
Chartered in 2001, VCOM had its first graduating class in 2007. It has now had three graduating classes that have produced more than 450 physicians.
Tooke-Rawlins said about a third of VCOM's students are from North and South Carolina.
"We decided providing a branch campus opportunity so they didn't have to leave and could do all four years there would be a good thing," she said.
Tooke-Rawlins said the school has had a direct impact of $166 million on Blacksburg's economy. She expects the Spartanburg branch will produce similar numbers.
"It will be a nice economic boon for the region," she said.
Tooke-Rawlins said Spartanburg officials and the area itself convinced VCOM to expand here rather than in North Carolina.
"The hospitality of those at Spartanburg Regional and of those in the city convinced us this was a place we'd like to look at," she said. "And it's much more conducive to our mission of rural and underserved care."
Spartanburg County Councilwoman Jane Hall said the school would be a boost for the community, and its graduates would fill a gaping need in medical care.
"It's going to be great for the students in this osteopathic medicine program and great for the Upstate to have these doctors, because when they're in their third and fourth year of residency they'll be out there helping take care of patients and pick up some of the slack of maybe not having full-time family medical care in all the communities," she said. "I think it's going to be a plus."
) I have been working as a nursing assistant (let's just say an "eye opening" job). I really have little desire to get a masters in anything except biomechanical or chemical engineering which would take a full two years, and I'm not sure it would add much to my abilities as a physician.
, and pay a second set of rent and utilities in a city 5 hours away for a minimum of two years. (Her getting another job won't be an "ethical" option since she just started her new night time nursing manager position, which was basically given to her as a favor of sorts to help get me through school.)
