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发帖数: 2279 | 1 DeLengocky: North Texas needs more residency slots, not M.D. classes
Posted Monday, Oct. 11, 2010 2
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Topics: North Texas, Texas, Texas Education Agencies
Special to the Star-Telegram
When the Texas Legislature convenes in January, it might act on a proposal
from the University of North Texas Health Science Center (UNTHSC) to
establish another medical school -- an allopathic or MD-granting school
tentatively called UNTMD -- on its Fort Worth campus.
The UNTMD proposal claims a start-up cost of $21.5 million, which will be
covered by community pledges of $25 million. This cost estimate is far below
those of other planned or recently established medical schools in Texas.
The Paul Foster School of Medicine in El Paso, which admitted its first
class of 40 students in 2009, cost $150 million. UT Southwestern and the
Seton Family of Hospitals plan to invest $1.5 billion to establish a medical
school and medical center in Austin.
The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board estimates funding to establish
a medical school in South Texas could reach $99 million. The 2009
Legislature approved the school but will not fund the program until after
2015.
The low cost estimate of the UNTMD plan raises questions about its
credibility and the vision and nature of UNTMD. In 2004, UNT Health Science
Center did a business study for a school of pharmacy. The total start-up
cost for a program with a graduating class of 60 students was about $23
million. Is it realistic to expect that six years later the start-up cost of
a medical school with a class size of 100 students will be less expensive?
A closer analysis of the UNTMD business plan shows deliberate omissions. It
did not include the cost of renovating 22,000 square feet of building space
that will be reserved for the MD school. According to the UNTHSC's
Legislative Appropriation Request for fiscal year 2012-13, UNTHSC is asking,
rather surprisingly, for $90 million for a new building of 150,000 square
feet, which coincides with the minimum space required for a small medical
school. Why isn't this cost reflected in the business plan?
Furthermore, the business plan does not detail administrative costs; UNTMD
at UNTHSC would increase administrative costs beyond their present levels.
The culture of growth in UNTHSC's administrative ranks is striking. In 2007,
UNTHSC's student enrollment was 1,153. In addition to the president, there
were nine vice presidents, seven associate vice presidents, one assistant
vice president and 11 associate deans, for a total of 29 leadership
positions. By 2010, with a student enrollment of 1,587, the numbers had
risen by 11 positions. As of 2010, in addition to the president, there were
17 vice presidents, five associate vice presidents, four deans and 15
associate and assistant deans, or 42 leadership positions. These do not
include the department chairs and service directors.
At an Aug. 23 town-hall meeting, UNTHSC President Scott Ransom presented the
future UNTMD curriculum as building "on the success achieved at TCOM by
adopting a similar, although not identical, educational delivery model,
teaching style and curriculum, subject to meeting all the requirements for
curriculum content for an MD program."
UNTMD will share a single corps of clinical and basic science faculty
members. Basically, UNTMD would be a duplication of TCOM except for the
different title degree. UNTMD's curriculum will offer less than the TCOM
curriculum by eliminating the emphasis on the neuro-musculoskeletal
component of medical education.
Establishing UNTMD will make UNTHSC a medical school of one body with two
heads (the two administrative structures) and make UNTHSC the largest
medical school in Texas with 330 students per class. Does this make any
sense in business and academic terms?
The addition of 400 MD students definitely will benefit Fort Worth by
infusing $1.7 billion into the local economy over the next 10 years. But
increasing the student enrollment at UNTHSC would have the same impact, as
it has a $600 million annual economic impact on the local community with a
current enrollment of 1,500 students.
Research has shown that the availability of graduate medical education
placements -- residency slots and not slots in medical school -- is the
limiting factor in addressing a physician shortage. Using the pledges of $25
million to develop 125 additional residency slots represents a better, more
cost-effective strategy for responding to the projected physician shortages
in Tarrant County. Resources should be invested in a successful program,
TCOM, rather than a costly, unnecessary duplication of it.
Establishing an MD degree at the UNTHSC would amount to converting one
superior medical school program into two mediocre programs.
Dr. Tayson DeLengocky, a 2002 alum of the Texas College of Osteopathic
Medicine, practices vitreo-retinal surgery and neuro-ophthalmology in Peoria
, Ill., and is a member of the American Osteopathic Association's Council of
New Physicians In Practice. |
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