For Release: Jan 21, 2015
OLYMPIA—Spokane lawmakers Michael Baumgartner and Marcus Riccelli introduced bills Wednesday that pave the way for a new Washington State University medical school in Spokane, with broad bipartisan co-sponsorship demonstrating deep support in the House and Senate.
Senate Bill 5487, sponsored by Sen. Baumgartner, R-Spokane, has a total 17 signatures. The measure sponsored by Rep. Riccelli, D-Spokane, House Bill 1559, has a total 60 signatures. The strong support in both chambers augurs well for a proposal that aims to boost medical education statewide and relieve a severe shortage of doctors across the state of Washington.
“I am thrilled to be able to submit this bill,” Riccelli said. “Sixty members of the House of Representatives from both sides of the aisle, from all over the state, are joining together to support a stronger, more vibrant medical school system in Washington.”
The House and Senate bills eliminate a restriction imposed by the state in 1917 giving the University of Washington the exclusive right to operate a public medical school in the state of Washington. That would allow Washington State University to expand an existing medical training facility at its branch campus in Spokane into a separately accredited medical school. Supporters of the school also will seek an appropriation of $2.5 million in this year’s operating budget to begin the accreditation process.
“I am pleased but not at all surprised by the strong support for this bill,” Baumgartner said. “We’re saying a law written nearly one hundred years ago should not dictate the way we teach medicine in the 21st century.”
The law has essentially limited Washington to a single medical school while most states of its size are served by several medical schools. Enrollment by Washington residents at the University of Washington is restricted to 120 each fall. Yet every year Washington produces 350 students who continue on to medical school, meaning two-thirds of them are forced to leave the state.
Many never return, a factor that contributes to a shortage of physicians statewide and a maldistribution of physicians within the state. Just to be at the national average for the number of med-school slots per capita, Washington would need space for 440 students. WSU plans an enrollment that would reach 120 in a decade.
WSU’s concept features an innovative community-based model that spreads training programs to hospitals and branch campuses statewide and avoids the expense of creating a new teaching hospital.
Riccelli said the WSU med school will go a long way toward easing the statewide physician shortage. He noted that 67 percent of med-school students settle in the state where they receive their undergraduate and graduate medical training. “By having top-notch schools on both sides of the Cascades, we can reduce the doctor shortage across the state, particularly in the small communities across Eastern Washington where family physicians are needed the most,” he said.
Media contacts:
Sen. Michael Baumgartner – Erik Smith: (360) 786-7037
Rep. Marcus Riccelli – Travis Shofner: (360) 786-7224