Biomedical and Health Sciences Building stays on track

April 17, 2012

By Communications staff, Washington State University

SPOKANE, Wash. With full funding approved, construction of a health sciences building at Washington State University Spokane is scheduled to be finished in fall 2013, according to campus leaders.

“The capital budget approved by the legislature will allow us to move forward to finish construction of the Biomedical and Health Sciences Building in Spokane, our top priority in our capital budget,” said WSU President Elson S. Floyd.

After approving funding for half the construction in 2011, the Washington Legislature passed a capital budget Wednesday that approves the university’s $37 million request to complete the building. Funding includes a combination of state bonds and WSU capital financing.

Extraordinary community support from Spokane business and government leaders was cited by Floyd and WSU Spokane Chancellor Brian Pitcher as a key factor in receiving funding.

“The combined advocacy of business and local government, led by Greater Spokane Incorporated, together with very strong bipartisan legislative support, established the Biomedical and Health Sciences facility as a critical statewide investment,” Pitcher said. “WSU is grateful for the united vision and enthusiasm for the growth of health sciences education and research.”

The building will be shared by the WSU College of Pharmacy and the Spokane cohort of the medical education partnership between WSU and the University of Washington. Pharmacy is co-located on the WSU Pullman and Spokane campuses, but will consolidate in Spokane.

“Completion of this new building is absolutely essential for the continued growth of health sciences research and education in Spokane,” said Gary Pollack, dean of the WSU College of Pharmacy and vice provost for WSU Health Sciences. “The building will enable our professional pharmacy program to consolidate in Spokane and will house the expanding medical education program, with a direct impact on the provision of health care in eastern Washington.

“This facility also will allow us to recruit world-class pharmaceutical and biomedical scientists to WSU and will support rapid and significant expansion of research and graduate education in Spokane,” he said. “We are enormously grateful to the legislature for investing in this effort and to the Spokane community for having the vision to advocate so successfully for our university.”

Timeline

In 2008, a cohort of 20 first-year medical students began their studies at WSU Spokane, the state’s first new site for public medical education in nearly 40 years.

In 2009, the legislature approved $4.34 million in planning and design funding for the building, intended to serve as the site for the consolidated WSU College of Pharmacy and for medical education offered through a partnership of WSU with the University of Washington School of Medicine’s WWAMI (Washington-Wyoming-Alaska-Montana-Idaho) program.

WSU was a founding partner in the five-state medical education system and has had a cohort of students at the Pullman campus since the program’s initiation.

Also in 2009, a feasibility study on expansion of medical education in the region, led by UW and WSU, recommended that the Spokane site for the WWAMI program ultimately grow to 100-120 students in each of the four years of medical school.

The following year, the legislature approved an additional $3.5 million for planning and design to expand the building’s capacity for medical education and research. Also in 2010, the WSU Board of Regents designated WSU Spokane as the university’s health sciences campus.

In addition, a study by a top consultant on health sciences campus development, Tripp-Umbach and Associates, was released in 2010 with the finding that the work grounded at the Spokane Riverpoint Campus will be the catalyst for a $2.1 billion annual economic impact at full maturity, creating 13,410 new jobs and producing $164 million/year in government revenue.

Business and community leaders from Spokane, along with WSU officials, have cited that report as they’ve worked the last two sessions to convince legislators of the importance of this project for eastern Washington and the entire state.

In 2011, the legislature approved $35 million in construction funds, the first half of the amount needed to complete the building and provide basic equipment. With the additional funding approved, construction – which began in summer 2011 – will stay on track.

The building is expected to be complete in fall 2013 and occupied for classes beginning spring semester 2014. WSU will continue to pursue other funding sources for specialty equipment needed for research.

Future plans

This spring, the first cohort of medical students who began their studies at WWAMI Spokane in 2008 will graduate with their MDs and begin the residencies that prepare them for their chosen specialties. With the support of local donors for the start-up phase, beginning in fall 2013 the WWAMI Spokane site will add the second year of medical education – currently offered only in Seattle – thus making a full four years of medical education available in Spokane.

Planned future growth in medicine will increase the state’s capacity for medical education to help address the increasing physician workforce shortage.

The WSU College of Pharmacy also plans to increase enrollments in the professional doctor of pharmacy program, as well as expanding its research portfolio in the pharmaceutical sciences. The Health Sciences and Services Authority of Spokane County recently announced several grants funding the recruitment of senior scientists and the purchase of equipment needed to support health sciences research.

Alongside the WSU College of Nursing, the region’s largest educator of baccalaureate-prepared nurses, this growth in pharmacy and medicine will ground the developing academic health sciences center at Riverpoint Campus, which includes programs of WSU, the UW School of Medicine and allied health programs of Eastern Washington University.