Mercer to Open Medical School in Savannah

By Jennifer Burk, The Macon Telegraph, Ga.

Jun. 21–Mercer University will open a four-year medical school in Savannah and enroll its first students in 2008, officials announced Wednesday.

The new school builds on an 11-year partnership Mercer has with Memorial Health University Medical Center in Savannah. Memorial Health currently teaches one-third of Mercer’s third- and fourth-year medical students.

The four-year school has been in the works for about three years and comes on the heels of a doctor shortage in the state, which ranks in the bottom 25 percent nationwide in physicians per capita.

“If we don’t do something about our medical school enrollment, our standing is likely to get worse in the years ahead,” Mercer President Bill Underwood said at an afternoon news conference in Macon. He and Memorial Health officials made the same announcement in Savannah earlier in the day.

Mercer officials have openly discussed plans for the new medical school in the past but couldn’t move forward until Gov. Sonny Perdue signed the state budget that allocates $5.5 million for the project.

In Macon, state Rep. Jim Cole, R-Forsyth, spoke on behalf of Perdue and his support for a new medical school.

Perdue “believed that this is what’s right for Georgia because it benefits the most important resource we have, and that’s our citizens,” Cole said.

State Sen. Cecil Staton, R-Macon, state Rep. David Lucas, D-Macon, and Macon Mayor Jack Ellis also spoke in favor of the project.

The Mercer School of Medicine currently enrolls 240 students — 60 in each of the four years. Eventually, the school hopes to double its enrollment, Underwood said. Officials anticipate enrolling 30 students in Savannah in fall 2008 and then 60 in fall 2009.

Mercer already has begun the hiring process for new faculty members and the new medical school will undergo review by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, an accrediting authority, in August, said Dr. Martin L. Dalton, dean of the School of Medicine.

The school initially will hire about 14 new faculty members, but that number could increase to 18 as the school grows, Dalton said. The school already has received more than 100 applications, he said.

In about four years, Mercer hopes to construct its own building to house the medical school. In the meantime, the university will refurbish some of the unused buildings at Memorial Health, making room for offices, lecture halls, laboratory space and classrooms, Dalton said.

Mercer is hoping Savannah will issue a bond to help with the construction of a new building, much like Macon did when the medical school was established here 25 years ago, he said.

A Savannah medical school campus opens the door for many opportunities in the future, such as possibly adding branches of the nursing and pharmacy schools, Dalton said.

“This is just the beginning,” he said.

Memorial Health already has been preparing for the four-year school, said Bob Colvin, president and CEO of the hospital.

The hospital has been expanding residencies, many physicians already are on board with the project and last year Memorial Health opened a new research center, he said.

“Savannah’s going to be one of the fastest growing areas of the state in the next couple years,” Colvin said. “It only makes sense to put medical school training in the middle of that growth.”

To contact writer Jennifer Burk, call 744-4345.

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