New details have emerged about the planned medical school in Shasta County, but some county officials still have reservations about the project.
Norman Hall, president of Simpson University and chairman of a commission designated to explore medical school options, hopes to build a $150 million, four-year medical school at Simpson, and is asking the county for a $10 million investment. Some community leaders — including Supervisor Kevin Crye and Simpson board member Josh Barker — are all in favor of the project; but Supervisors Allen Long and Matt Plummer requested more details about the school’s plans before they come to a final decision.
At an April 21 Board of Supervisors meeting, Hall as well as several proponents of the Rural Northern California Medical School presented their case for the school to the board.
As planned, the school would be fully accredited, built on Simpson University land, educate cohorts of 150 to 200 students, and open in 2029 or 2030. The school plans to prioritize local students over students from out of the area.
The school is designed to solve the health professional shortage in Northern California; according to a study described by Hall at a prior board meeting, physicians are likely to “practice in the communities where they completed their training.”
Hall said the school is projected to attract “approximately 27 new physicians into the community” to both teach and practice medicine. He also said the school is expected to flow an additional $600 million to $1 billion into local economies over the course of a decade.
To build the school, Hall said Simpson will need to secure $50 million from Salud, a company “that brings resources in exchange for a partnership,” $50 million in escrow, $40 million from fundraising and $10 million from the county.
Long asked Hall how Simpson plans to fundraise $40 million, to which Hall responded that Simpson has “raised $36 million for other initiatives that don’t have anywhere near the same draw.” Hall also said he has partners in Washington D.C. who are helping to find “pathways to gain some of these dollars from federal and state resources.”
Long also expressed concern over the amount of money requested from the county for the project.
“We don’t have unlimited funding … And we have very important public safety needs, and we have some other needs, and while this is a wonderful, wonderful idea through Simpson and I applaud them for bringing this forward, we’re gonna have some tough decisions about a limited pool of resources,” said Long.
According to Chief Deputy Clerk of the Board Stefany Blankenship, the county is projected to have about $21 million in the general fund by the end of next year.
Hall also called up multiple other speakers, including Barker, former CEO of Shasta Community Health Center Dean Germano, local ob/gyn Dr. Thomas Perry, director of the internal medicine residency program at Shasta Regional Medical Center Dr. Thiruvoipati Nandakumar, Simpson provost Dr. Michael Salmeier, and chair of the Simpson board Dr. James Postma.
Barker expressed hope that a medical school in Shasta wouldn’t just change the county, but the entire North State.
“150 miles from here everybody will be grateful for what (Shasta County) did and what happened here, because all of those areas are gonna be sending their kids down to this medical school. And then we’re gonna slowly develop residencies back where they’re at,” said Barker.
The medical school, if constructed, would be the only of its kind between Sacramento and Portland.
Crye also pronounced his support for the medical school at the meeting.
“This board has an opportunity to do something in June that will effect the county for 50 to 100 years,” said Crye.
A point of concern for Plummer, though, was lack of specifics, noting that Hall attached no presentation or additional informative documents to the staff report.
“I would like to see a robust business plan that’s 20 pages or whatever it is … for us to step into (the medical school project) without anything essentially documented is inappropriate for this body,” said Plummer.
Questions that Plummer wants definitively answered include a projection of how many local students will graduate from the program annually, how many clinical rotations the school could support annually, and how many faculty the facility will require, among others.
Hall said at the meeting he has “several pages of data” which he would be willing to share, and Germano said “Simpson is doing the homework.”
The board will vote on whether to provide $10 million in funding to the medical school project at a later date.
Drew Askeland covers Redding and Shasta County government issues, as well as anything else that needs reporting for the Record Searchlight and USA Today Network. Reach him at drew.askeland@redding.com or (530) 225-8247. Please subscribe today to support our newsroom’s commitment to public service journalism.
This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Shasta County supervisors weigh medical school funding request
Reporting by Drew Askeland, Redding Record Searchlight / Redding Record Searchlight
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