WSU Spokane celebrated the groundbreaking of a new building Wednesday: the University District Health Clinic. Medical school graduates will be able to complete their residency at the clinic, and Spokane citizens, regardless of income, will be welcome to use it.
The clinic, and now most residencies in Spokane, is overseen by the year-old Spokane Teaching Health Consortium, made up of WSU Spokane, Empire Health Foundation, and Providence. Most residencies were previously run under Providence alone.
Once open, they expect it to have 48 student residents, out of Spokane’s 80 medical residency slots. WSU Spokane Chancellor Lisa Brown says it will be inter-professional, staffed with physicians, pharmacists, residents, and EWU students.
Brown: “But we expect nursing and Eastern’s physical and occupational therapy, and pharmacy, physician assistant students will also practice in that setting.”
The 42,000 square foot clinic is scheduled to open spring 2016. Most resident students will transfer over from the current family and internal medicine clinics on Fifth and Browne. Those served 35,000 low income patients last year, and once it closes, the consortium expects the new clinic to serve a similar number.
Construction will be financed through WSU, through the sale of up to $16-million dollars in general revenue bonds.
College of Medical Sciences Dean Ken Roberts says the medical school in development is designed for community based medical education.
Roberts: “And our focus here of course is very targeted on work force development where we need physicians the most. And that is in smaller communities and rural and underserved areas.”
Copyright 2015 Spokane Public Radio
