Health-care education becomes an economic driver
With its comprehensive array of facilities situated on a sprawling Farmington campus, the University of Connecticut is a leader in medical education and research.
There’s the School of Medicine, established in 1961. There’s also the School of Dental Medicine, as well as the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. John Dempsey Hospital is situated nearby, as are the UConn Medical Group, UConn Health Partners and University Dentists.
Together they comprise the University of Connecticut Health Center, a 160-acre site where teaching, research, clinical trials, training and other activities take place in scores of disciplines.
And its reach is about to get even bigger.
In March, Gov. M. Jodi Rell announced that the school and the state would establish a UConn Health Network that would forge partnerships with other hospitals and provide for a multi-million dollar renovation of the Dempsey Hospital.
“This partnership will result in a state-of-the-art John Dempsey Hospital and a health network with incredible reach throughout Connecticut,” said Rell in a statement. “This is a $352 million investment in a new hospital that will have increased classroom space for more medical and dental students and will help offset anticipated shortages in these professions. The return on our investment will include a nationally recognized cancer center and specialized institutes and advanced training open to all health-care professionals in the state.”
But the plan covers more than health-care education and treatment. Rell predicts it will create thousands of new jobs and promote economic development.
“The tremendous benefit, of course, is a more robust health-care sector that stands to gain 5,000 new jobs in the years to come,” Rell asserted.
The state’s health-care industry, the object of Rell’s proposal, remains under examination even after passage of the game-changing federal health-care reform bill.
The cancer center to which Rell refers would be located on the Farmington campus of the UConn Health Center and will seek the federal designation of Comprehensive Cancer Center, making it the second such facility in the state after Yale-New Haven Hospital’s Smilow Cancer Hospital, which opened last October.
Other network elements include a primary care institute at Hartford’s Saint Francis Hospital that would allow health-care professionals to establish novel chronic-disease management, primary care treatment and education paradigms; a simulation center at Hartford Hospital for professional training use of new technology and equipment; and a Health Disparities Institute in the city of Hartford targeting minorities.
Additional network features include transfer of the neonatal intensive care unit to the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, an Institute for Clinical and Translational Sciences on the Farmington campus and the creation of a Bioscience Enterprise Zone offering tax incentives to private companies that establish jobs and work projects with network partners. Other network affiliates include the Hospital of Central Connecticut, and Bristol and Waterbury hospitals.
Of the total cost, $25 million has been budgeted for design and planning. That amount already has been approved in UConn 21st Century funding. State bonding will cover $227 million, states Rell. The remaining $100 million will come from Washington.
While UConn seeks to broaden its health-care footprint through facilities expansion, some institutions in the state prefer to make their mark by actually narrowing their focus.
For example Southern Connecticut State University, for example, prides itself on its public health program. One of just a few schools offering a bachelor’s degree in public health, it also provides a master’s of public health program.
The medical emphasis at Gateway Community College is nursing.
“Hospitals continue to hire our graduates right out of school,” says Gateway spokesperson Evelyn Gard. Established in 2003 and was recently reaccredited, the nursing program is “still very popular,” with a waiting list of applicants eager to enroll, according to Gard.
A partnership with Yale-New Haven Hospital (YNHH) may enhance the attractiveness of GCC’s nursing program. The single largest employer of Gateway-trained nursing students, YNHH has supported the community college’s program through financial grants-in-aid. The support is the result of negotiations with the city when YNHH sought to build its Smilow Cancer Hospital.
The employment track record for GCC graduates is impeccable, according to Gard, with all receiving job offers after passing their board examinations. Now, with passage of the health care bill, Gateway may be in a position to compete with hospitals and retain some of those graduates through teaching appointments.
“The demand to grow the program is obviously going to become more strong because now they’re offering incentives to teach,” says Gard. “I imagine that will help us because we’re always looking for teachers.”
A provision in the bill allows nurses electing to teach in a nursing school to take advantage of loan-forgiveness programs. In addition, the bill re-establishes key federal funding for nursing education.
For students wishing to continue their studies and training after graduating from community college, the Connecticut Community College Nursing Program announced last month finalization of a new articulation agreement with four state baccalaureate nursing programs.
The agreement is intended to provide “seamless transitions” from associate’s degree to bachelor’s degree programs, as well as master’s and doctoral-level programs in Connecticut, according to a Connecticut Community Colleges release. Finalized in March during a meeting of the CCC board of trustees, the agreements are with Fairfield University, the University of Hartford, St. Joseph and Goodwin colleges. Agreements with additional colleges and universities are planned, according to Linda Perfetto, director of CCC system nursing curricular operations.
“This is in keeping with the long-standing commitment of the five Connecticut Community College Nursing Programs to support and encourage the educational advancement of our graduates,” says Perfetto. “These pathways give our associate degree nursing graduates a route to higher levels of nursing education throughout the state and in a variety of specializations, and we’re thrilled to be able to offer this expanded opportunity for students.”
The new health care legislation also offers strong incentives for doctors who pursue rural, urban and other underserved locations. Substantial funds have been allocated for community health centers — a training ground for many primary care professionals — and the pool of medical-student loans. Avenues to qualify for debt forgiveness have been enhanced, as well.
John L. Lahey, president of Quinnipiac University, which earlier this year announced its intention to open a medical school (BNH, February 2010), hopes students will consider all such options when making decisions about a career in medicine.
“Our desired level is to eventually have 500 students,” Lahey explains. “We expect to have 125 students in each class” of the four-year program.
Initial costs to establish the medical school, which will be sited on Quinnipiac’s North Haven campus, are estimated at $75 million — $40 million for building renovations and the remainder for start-up and operational expenses.
“We will have to subsidize the medical school during that period,” says Lahey.
Renovations are expected to begin in August 2011, and the medical school will welcome its first class in either 2013 or 2014, says Lahey.
Quinnipiac already has a School of Health Sciences, which trains nurse practitioners and physician assistants. The new school will not detract from those programs, Lahey says.
“I think it will be a complement to them and I think it will actually strengthen them,” he says.
The new facility will enhance available resources for students. For example, it will have a gross anatomy lab. Currently Quinnipiac students now go off-campus, training in a Yale lab to gain needed expertise.
With the anticipated surge of newly insured consumers, added medical facilities will be essential, says Lahey.
“Health and health-care reform have probably been the dominant topics in the media for the past year, especially the need to bring additional people into the system,” he says. “There will be 34 million [additional] people with access to health care. It’s a big part of the economy, a big part of the national discussion.
“As the national debate and discussion was going on, we naturally were looking at our own programs,” he adds.
Unlike the proposed UConn Health Network, however, Quinnipiac does not seek to change its fundamental mission.
“We want to stay in the business of education as opposed to delivering health care,” says Lahey.
The new health-care legislation will help support that focus, he says.
“There are some good things in there, particularly as it relates to primary care,” says Lahey. He cites, for example, increased Medicaid reimbursements and loan-forgiveness programs for doctors delivering care in urban and rural areas. The latter is particularly good news for Lahey, who wants the medical school to address the need for doctors in underserved areas.
“We clearly need more doctors to go into rural and urban areas, and we need more minority doctors,” says Lahey. “In primary care in particular, there clearly is a documented need. Where are these primary care doctors? They just don’t exist right now.”
The upcoming increase in the number of insured health care consumers may bring more patients to the teaching clinic at the University of Bridgeport’s College of Naturopathic Medicine, surmises Jennifer Johnson, a clinical professor at the school.
“We may see a jump in patient demand,” Johnson says, noting many of the newly insured may prefer naturopathic care. “That might be an increased benefit for our students and our patients.”
If student numbers are any indication, interest in naturopathic medicine is on the rise, Johnson says. Enrollment increased to 30-35 students in 2009, up from 20-25 students previously, she says. The Bridgeport program can comfortably accommodate up to about 40 students.
“We really are training our students to be primary-care physicians,” Johnson says, adding that there are no plans to expand the college.
“We have a low instructor-to-student ratio,” she says. “Within the structure we have, we’re quite satisfied.”
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