Health Beat - Fall 2016 - 14

IN THE COMMUNITY
By John Berggren

Capital Campaign Aims to Expand
KU-Salina Campus, Recruitment Access
to Physicians in Rural Kansas

arlier this year, the Salina
Regional Health Foundation
announced plans to purchase and renovate a former bank building to become the
future home for the University of
Kansas School of Medicine-Salina
campus. A $7.5 million capital campaign called the Blueprint for Rural
Health was launched to purchase,
renovate and equip the new facility
and to create an endowment for its
future maintenance.
The KU-Salina campus opened
its doors for the first class of eight
medical students in July 2011. The
mission: providing students a quality
education in a rural setting with hope
that many might one day practice in
rural Kansas. The program has now
graduated two classes of students, and
a number of these 16 graduates have
committed to practice in rural Kansas.
Since its opening, the program
has been based out of the Braddick
Building at Salina Regional Health
Center. The new facility will provide 40,251 square feet of space to

FIND OUT HOW
YOU CAN HELP
Donors can help support the
Blueprint for Rural Health
campaign. Contact Tom Martin
at the Salina Regional Health
Foundation at 785-452-6088
or tmartin@srhc.com or Matt
Rhea at KU at 913-562-2711 or
mrhea@kuendowment.org.

srhc.com

accommodate curricular changes
that go into effect in 2017.
"We want to continue to compete
for the best and brightest students,"
says William Cathcart-Rake, MD,
KU-Salina dean. "We believe we have
the processes in place and have developed a unique learning environment
that allows us to be competitive with
any other medical school campus.
However, we want to continue to offer
facilities that reach that measure."
KU-Salina is the smallest fouryear medical school campus in North
America, and Salina is the smallest
community to be the site of a full, fouryear allopathic medical school. The
program has received national attention for efforts to train students who
might serve in rural communities.
In 2012, the Health Resources and
Services Administration identified
97 of 105 Kansas counties as having
medically underserved populations.
A 2013 study showed 34 Kansas counties had two or fewer primary care
physicians and eight had no full-time
primary care physicians.

Top: The new facility will
accommodate curriculum changes,
which will require more small group
meeting space and simulation labs.
Bottom Right: A former bank building
in downtown Salina will be home to
the new University of Kansas School
of Medicine-Salina campus.

"People in rural, medically underserved areas of Kansas may one day
have greater access to medical care
because of the success of this program," says Tom Martin, executive
director of the Salina Regional Health
Foundation. "The Blueprint for Rural
Health campaign and KU-Salina's mission is a unique solution to the welldocumented shortages of physicians
in Kansas. We hope people throughout
the region and state will see the merits of this entire effort and join our
campaign to raise $7.5 million and
make the medical school campus in
Salina a reality." 1

http://www.srhc.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Health Beat - Fall 2016