UNLV School of Medicine completes key step toward accreditation

The UNLV School of Medicine will rely on clinical partnerships with University Medical Center, Sunrise Hospital, the VA Medical Center in North Las Vegas and Dignity Health Nevada to train the 60 students per year who will be starting classes beginning in 2017, according to a key document submitted today as part of the school's accreditation process.

Dr. Barbara Atkinson, founding dean of the school, and her team submitted the self-study today to the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, the independent body that accredits allopathic medical schools in the U.S. and Canada. School officials have made the 34-page self-study available to the public online at www.unlv.edu/medicine/accreditation.

The clinical affiliations will be in addition to three community clinics medical school officials intend to establish for their students. The two major medical affiliates, UMC and the VA, have a combined 651 beds, 35,500 admissions and 870,000 outpatient visits per year. Dignity Health Nevada operates the St. Rose hospitals and has clinical sites in Southern Nevada.

The self-study is an overview of what curriculum, resources, faculty and facilities will be needed to welcome the first medical students into classes set to begin in 2017. The first graduating class is projected to receive degrees in 2021. According to the self-study, the medical school will create 5,300 jobs and $800 million of economic activity annually by 2025, a figure that will grow to $1.2 billion by 2030.

"There are no identified resource gaps for the planning of the UNLV School of Medicine," the self-study says. "Financial support from UNLV, the Nevada Legislature, and from philanthropy is substantial and sufficient to design and deliver a quality medical education.

"The only significant financial constraint on the school is the need to identify a major donor to help fund the construction of a dedicated School of Medicine building," the self-study says.

Officials with the Nevada System of Higher Education and Clark County are in negotiations over 10 acres of county land near the UNLV Shadow Lane campus in the Las Vegas Medical District. UNLV officials anticipate identifying a donor who will contribute $100 million to $150 million to construct the building, the self-study says. If the negotiations don't work, the building will be built on the Shadow Lane campus, the study says.

The Clark County Board of Commissioners is scheduled today to discuss with higher-ed officials a memorandum of understanding for the land that is about to expire. The county property at 625 Shadow Lane, the former Southern Nevada Health District building, is near Valley Hospital and UMC.

The UNLV School of Medicine is one of the efforts underway to address the doctor shortage in the state overall and Southern Nevada in particular. Roseman School of Health Sciences officials already have submitted their self-study for the creation of a medical school, and a task force soon will be formed to recommend how to spend $10 million to create and expand residency programs for doctors in training.

The UNLV and Roseman schools both plan to admit 60 students per year starting in 2017. The Touro University Nevada School of Osteopathic Medicine graduates about 135 doctors each year who could train in expanded residency programs in Southern Nevada.

Nevada ranks near the bottom among states in terms of the number of doctors per capita. If students go to medical school but complete their residency in another state, 60 percent remain in that state to practice, experts say. However, 80 percent of students who complete both medical school and residency in the same state stay to practice.

The UNLV self-study lists everything from student requirements for research and professionalism to services to be provided for personal counseling and financial aid. The study concludes with the planned school's strengths and weaknesses, from an established group of physician faculty to differences in UNLV's curriculum from that taught by the University of Nevada School of Medicine.

Some 120 doctors affiliated with the Reno school are in the process of being jointly affiliated with both schools and will be transitioning to UNLV in the 2016-17 school year. Atkinson has said her students will be well-grounded in community clinics to have them invested and active in the communities where they're training. The future of medicine will be more outpatient than inpatient, Atkinson has said, and Medicaid patients will be the focus because they often have the most difficulty getting to see doctors.

The self-study says students will spend time in one of three to-be-determined clinical sites in Las Vegas, North Las Vegas or Henderson.

"The curriculum stresses that each student form and foster relationships — with peers, with faculty and mentors, with patients, and with community organizations," the self-study says.

— Contact Steven Moore at smoore@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4563.