08/29/2008

By SHANNON DININNY  / Associated Press

A new Northwest medical school that just opened its doors to students laid out plans Thursday for two more colleges, intending to ease shortages of additional health care professionals in the region.

The private, nonprofit Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences has 75 students enrolled in the inaugural class of its College of Osteopathic Medicine in Yakima, about 120 miles southeast of Seattle in central Washington's farm belt. Hundreds turned out last month, shortly before classes began, to celebrate the opening of the new $19.7 million facility.

The university also has been conducting a feasibility study to determine what other health education programs it might be able to support. The university announced Thursday that its board of directors had voted to open two additional colleges, possibly as early as next fall: the College of Allied Health Sciences and the College of Biomedical Sciences.

Initial degrees to be offered include a doctorate in clinical psychology and a master's degree in clinical counseling or public health, a master's degree for physician's assistants, and a transition program for registered nurses with two-year associate degrees to pursue four-year bachelor's degrees.

"The long-range vision for the university includes multiple colleges, offering degrees and training in a variety of health sciences regimens, each based on the needs of rural communities in the Northwest," said Dr. Stan Flemming, university president. "We are pleased to begin this next step in the development of the university, significantly ahead of the anticipated schedule."

The College of Osteopathic Medicine, the 25th osteopathic medical school in the country, aims to send primary care doctors to serve in rural and low-income areas in five states.

Osteopathic medicine combines a holistic approach to medical care and therapy with more conventional medical practices such as medication and surgery.

Seventy percent of the college's enrolled students are from the Pacific Northwest, and the college has agreements with hospitals, clinics and doctors in Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana to provide clinical training to students in their third and fourth years.

Primary care physicians aren't the only need. In the five-state Northwest region, nearly 1.5 million people live in areas that have been designated by the federal government as medically underserved — lacking in primary care doctors, dentists and mental health professionals.

Alaska, Idaho and Oregon have been so designated. All but one of Washington's 39 counties and all but six of Montana's 56 counties received the same designation, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Some 333 doctors would need to be hired in rural and low-income areas to lift those designations.

In Washington state alone, vacancies in the mental health profession hover between 20 percent and 30 percent, creating a significant shortfall, Flemming said.

The military also has growing needs in its ranks — and in the community — for mental health professionals and has approached the school about collaborating in that area, Flemming said.

"When you look at what the local needs are, the regional needs and then the needs of the military, it was pretty clear that these were the areas where we would concentrate," he said.

Board members focused on adding disciplines where the university could build on its existing program without requiring significant additional resources up front, said Dr. Lloyd Butler, a retired family doctor in Sunnyside, university founder and its board chairman.

"The building is a tremendous community asset, and it allows us to look at adding these additional fields of training probably sooner than expected," he said. "Part of the reason these programs are feasible at this point is that we're not talking about raising significant funds and building additional buildings."

The university also is talking to other area universities, including Central Washington University, Washington State University and the University of Washington, about collaborating while it pursues accreditation for these new colleges.

If all goes well, Flemming said, 30 students could be enrolled in each new college next fall, in addition to the 75 second-year students and a new incoming class at the College of Osteopathic Medicine.

The university already has received more than 1,000 applications for the 2009 class.