- Joined
- Apr 5, 2012
- Messages
- 400
- Reaction score
- 53
From the watertown times in Wisconsin:
JEFFERSON The most prominent representative of the Wisconsin College of Osteopathic Medicine (WCOM), Dr. Gregg Silberg, spent time Tuesday talking with the Daily Times about his educational background and work experience, as well as about his schools history as it endeavors to locate on Jeffersons historic former St. Coletta property.
Silberg said the public should know within three weeks if Jefferson has been chosen as the location of its new college of osteopathic medicine. City officials have called the opportunity historic in terms of its potential positive impact on Jefferson business and life.
A little more than one week ago Silberg, executive vice president and dean, along with his WCOM colleagues, met with city of Jefferson and Jefferson County officials to explain their hopes for establishing a college of osteopathic medicine at the former St. Coletta campus, now known as the sprawling east side development, Sanctuary Ridge.
At the time of the meeting, all concerned seemed to say, full-steam ahead to the project, which would create D.O.s, or doctors of osteopathic medicine, who would dedicate their careers, in most cases, to taking care of rural populations and other patients who are underserved.
Silberg said a shortage of primary care physicians is a main driver of the WCOMs wish to locate in Jefferson. He said Wisconsin needs 850 to 900 such new physicians each year to keep pace with demand.
A D.O. is a fully licensed physician who practices all aspects of medicine. That person may perform surgeries and prescribe medication. He said they also take further steps with patients, noting a D.O. looks at the mind, body and spirit.
A higher number of osteopathic doctors, approximately 60 percent, today enter primary care, compared to a lesser percentage of M.D.s, or medical doctors, who frequently enter the academic side of medicine.
He said if the osteopathic college is created at Jefferson, Wisconsin would be the 30th state in the U.S. to have a school espousing the discipline. The WCOM has been in existence since 2008.
The college would be a 501(c)(3) organization and, if kept on its desired schedule, the school would accept its first class of 100 students in August of 2015. He said there would eventually be four classes and 100 faculty members, with 23 as physicians. Eighty-five percent of students would be accepted from in-state and there would be medical scholars and other programs.
Tuition for a student would be approximately $40,000 per year, over four years. The school would take up 10-25 acres of Sanctuary Ridge and buildings would be approximately 90,000 square feet.
Silberg said the economic impact to the local community could be an estimated $65 million per year, and $5 million per year on surrounding communities, if clinical and graduate training sites are added.
He said the college could expect pre-accreditation in late summer this year. He said, with pre-accreditation coming at that time, full accreditation could eventually follow and the first full class could graduate in 2019. The cost to develop the school was estimated to be $84 million.
Talking with the Daily Times Tuesday by cell phone as he was en route to Jeffersons Sanctuary Ridge for another meeting, Silberg talked about his education and background in osteopathic medicine.
He said he has worked with the WCOM as a full-time employee since March of 2011. He obtained his D.O. in Kansas City, Mo., after receiving a bachelor of science degree in pharmaceutical studies at Drake University in Iowa.
He said the WCOM is currently based in Mequon, sharing an office with the state association of osteopaths, but that could change very quickly, he said, seeming to imply that if the college would establish itself in one of several places under consideration in Wisconsin its home office location would change.
He said if the WCOM can establish a college in Wisconsin, it would be its first and would place the school as the 30th such college in 30 U.S. states.
We are completely independent from any other campuses, he said.
Silberg declined to mention other locations in the state the WCOM is considering for its college. He called that information confidential, but said there are currently more than three receiving attention, Jefferson included.
We cant come out in public right now with any specific information on ranking of our options, Silberg said. But I can tell you Jefferson has as good a shot as anybody else and they are hopefully going to be hearing something soon ... I wish I could answer more now, but I cant. We are working regularly with Jefferson and going as fast as we can.
Silberg said it will likely be known if Jefferson will be the new location for the osteopathic college no later than Feb. 20.
Theres a reason for that. We are in the process of doing negotiations. We are looking at Jefferson pretty highly as a site. They are still right at the top, but I cant say they are the top. People will have to just hang in there for very good, specific information, he said.
Silberg said the Sanctuary Ridge site was identified by the WCOM as a possible site in November of 2012.
We were introduced to it through an independent entity that wishes to remain nameless at this time, he said.
He said if Sanctuary Ridge is chosen, the WCOM would hope to retrofit most of the facilities as part of its update of the campus.
But we dont know if we can do that yet, he said. There are some beautiful buildings out there and we are looking at that right now. We have what we want out at Sanctuary Ridge. We dont want to push too much out there, because too much information can sometimes backfire on you. We are considering the site. Negotiations are going on to tie everything together and that is probably as much as I can say. Three more weeks and we should have something a lot more significant to say that will have a lot more of an effect. We need to finalize what we are doing and then put out a big announcement at that point. Whats out there is pretty good for the moment. Negotiations are moving fast and we should have something big to say in about three weeks.
Jefferson Mayor Dale Oppermann, also speaking by cell phone, said Tuesday afternoon he was racing back to Jefferson from another meeting at Portage in order to meet further with Silberg and others.
Im confident they are strongly considering Jefferson and we are working on a daily basis to do everything we can to make it attractive for them to do so, Oppermann said. I spoke with Todd Schultz, developer of Sanctuary Ridge, and we are meeting again today. We are meeting on a daily basis. There is a lot of details to be worked out. So we are not at a point where its a sure thing, but there is no indication they are not considering Jefferson. This is on a fast track, just due to the timing the college is trying to achieve. There are drawbacks if this even lapses a month, so we will show the college the communitys commitment.
Too bad, I wanted to go here. Guess it'll be a year too late...
JEFFERSON The most prominent representative of the Wisconsin College of Osteopathic Medicine (WCOM), Dr. Gregg Silberg, spent time Tuesday talking with the Daily Times about his educational background and work experience, as well as about his schools history as it endeavors to locate on Jeffersons historic former St. Coletta property.
Silberg said the public should know within three weeks if Jefferson has been chosen as the location of its new college of osteopathic medicine. City officials have called the opportunity historic in terms of its potential positive impact on Jefferson business and life.
A little more than one week ago Silberg, executive vice president and dean, along with his WCOM colleagues, met with city of Jefferson and Jefferson County officials to explain their hopes for establishing a college of osteopathic medicine at the former St. Coletta campus, now known as the sprawling east side development, Sanctuary Ridge.
At the time of the meeting, all concerned seemed to say, full-steam ahead to the project, which would create D.O.s, or doctors of osteopathic medicine, who would dedicate their careers, in most cases, to taking care of rural populations and other patients who are underserved.
Silberg said a shortage of primary care physicians is a main driver of the WCOMs wish to locate in Jefferson. He said Wisconsin needs 850 to 900 such new physicians each year to keep pace with demand.
A D.O. is a fully licensed physician who practices all aspects of medicine. That person may perform surgeries and prescribe medication. He said they also take further steps with patients, noting a D.O. looks at the mind, body and spirit.
A higher number of osteopathic doctors, approximately 60 percent, today enter primary care, compared to a lesser percentage of M.D.s, or medical doctors, who frequently enter the academic side of medicine.
He said if the osteopathic college is created at Jefferson, Wisconsin would be the 30th state in the U.S. to have a school espousing the discipline. The WCOM has been in existence since 2008.
The college would be a 501(c)(3) organization and, if kept on its desired schedule, the school would accept its first class of 100 students in August of 2015. He said there would eventually be four classes and 100 faculty members, with 23 as physicians. Eighty-five percent of students would be accepted from in-state and there would be medical scholars and other programs.
Tuition for a student would be approximately $40,000 per year, over four years. The school would take up 10-25 acres of Sanctuary Ridge and buildings would be approximately 90,000 square feet.
Silberg said the economic impact to the local community could be an estimated $65 million per year, and $5 million per year on surrounding communities, if clinical and graduate training sites are added.
He said the college could expect pre-accreditation in late summer this year. He said, with pre-accreditation coming at that time, full accreditation could eventually follow and the first full class could graduate in 2019. The cost to develop the school was estimated to be $84 million.
Talking with the Daily Times Tuesday by cell phone as he was en route to Jeffersons Sanctuary Ridge for another meeting, Silberg talked about his education and background in osteopathic medicine.
He said he has worked with the WCOM as a full-time employee since March of 2011. He obtained his D.O. in Kansas City, Mo., after receiving a bachelor of science degree in pharmaceutical studies at Drake University in Iowa.
He said the WCOM is currently based in Mequon, sharing an office with the state association of osteopaths, but that could change very quickly, he said, seeming to imply that if the college would establish itself in one of several places under consideration in Wisconsin its home office location would change.
He said if the WCOM can establish a college in Wisconsin, it would be its first and would place the school as the 30th such college in 30 U.S. states.
We are completely independent from any other campuses, he said.
Silberg declined to mention other locations in the state the WCOM is considering for its college. He called that information confidential, but said there are currently more than three receiving attention, Jefferson included.
We cant come out in public right now with any specific information on ranking of our options, Silberg said. But I can tell you Jefferson has as good a shot as anybody else and they are hopefully going to be hearing something soon ... I wish I could answer more now, but I cant. We are working regularly with Jefferson and going as fast as we can.
Silberg said it will likely be known if Jefferson will be the new location for the osteopathic college no later than Feb. 20.
Theres a reason for that. We are in the process of doing negotiations. We are looking at Jefferson pretty highly as a site. They are still right at the top, but I cant say they are the top. People will have to just hang in there for very good, specific information, he said.
Silberg said the Sanctuary Ridge site was identified by the WCOM as a possible site in November of 2012.
We were introduced to it through an independent entity that wishes to remain nameless at this time, he said.
He said if Sanctuary Ridge is chosen, the WCOM would hope to retrofit most of the facilities as part of its update of the campus.
But we dont know if we can do that yet, he said. There are some beautiful buildings out there and we are looking at that right now. We have what we want out at Sanctuary Ridge. We dont want to push too much out there, because too much information can sometimes backfire on you. We are considering the site. Negotiations are going on to tie everything together and that is probably as much as I can say. Three more weeks and we should have something a lot more significant to say that will have a lot more of an effect. We need to finalize what we are doing and then put out a big announcement at that point. Whats out there is pretty good for the moment. Negotiations are moving fast and we should have something big to say in about three weeks.
Jefferson Mayor Dale Oppermann, also speaking by cell phone, said Tuesday afternoon he was racing back to Jefferson from another meeting at Portage in order to meet further with Silberg and others.
Im confident they are strongly considering Jefferson and we are working on a daily basis to do everything we can to make it attractive for them to do so, Oppermann said. I spoke with Todd Schultz, developer of Sanctuary Ridge, and we are meeting again today. We are meeting on a daily basis. There is a lot of details to be worked out. So we are not at a point where its a sure thing, but there is no indication they are not considering Jefferson. This is on a fast track, just due to the timing the college is trying to achieve. There are drawbacks if this even lapses a month, so we will show the college the communitys commitment.
Too bad, I wanted to go here. Guess it'll be a year too late...
