Ohio University is getting closer to opening two extensions of its Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine now that it’s hired a dean for the Cleveland campus and began the search for faculty for the Dublin campus.
Isaac Kirstein, who was recently named dean of the HCOM Cleveland campus, said as soon as he is enrolled in OU’s email network, he will start preparing the extension campus for its accreditation.
“There’s a lot of work that needs to get done between now and July 2015,” Kirstein said.
The Cleveland campus will open July 2015 to a class of 32 students, though it was accredited for 50 total students, said Dean of OU-HCOM Kenneth Johnson.
Cleveland Clinic contributed $13.1 million in addition to OU’s $36 million investment in order to renovate the building on the South Pointe Hospital campus, as well as fund staff and education support.
“We really need to make sure we understand the partners to know what their goals our, and (that) helps with our goals and priorities as well,” Kirstein said.
OU-HCOM’s Dublin campus holds a similar partnership with OhioHealth, which will facilitate opportunities for students to research and establish residency in some of the metropolitan medical facilities, said William Burke, dean of OU-HCOM’s Dublin campus.
“We’ll be looking to leverage those relationships as well as we enter the Columbus market in a bigger way,” Burke said.
The Dublin campus will accept a class of 50 medical students in July 2014 and comprises three existing buildings that are being refurbished to hold offices, lab space and distance learning classrooms.
The project totaled $24.7 million, of which start-up costs and initial hiring budgets were funded by the $105 million gift in 2011 from the Osteopathic Heritage Foundation.
Currently, the Dublin campus is holding searches and interviews for two social medicine faculty members and “4.5 full-time equivalent” biomedical science faculty, including faculty who divide time between patients and students, Burke said.
Burke said he hopes to hire several faculty members from OU-HCOM’s Athens campus.
“We want to think about, as we put this all together, what is it that comes from Athens that it would be nice to be able to see on our Dublin campus,” Burke said. “It’d help with that connection.”
The Cleveland campus will follow the same plan for development as the Dublin campus now that the dean has been established, Kirstein said.
But before the Cleveland campus can begin hiring faculty, the school must be accredited.
As a member of the executive committee of the Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation, Kirstein said he feels adequately prepared to make the accreditation process for the Cleveland campus as smooth as possible.
“When done well, the accreditation process also makes the school better,” Kirstein said. “It’s not just about passing a test; it’s about making the best school we can.”
Kenneth Johnson, dean of OU-HCOM, said now that the accreditation team has visited the Cleveland campus, he feels confident about the response Kirstein will receive in December based on the team’s initial feedback.
“The major hurdles have already been passed with the team coming to visit us,” Johnson said.
Both OU-HCOM’s Cleveland and Dublin campuses will focus their curriculum on training primary care physicians due to the shortage of those practicing in Ohio, Burke said.
Locating OU-HCOM’s extension campuses near Ohio’s two largest cities was strategic in recruiting medical students who would be likely to study primary care and stay within the state, Burke said.
“Those that come from smaller rural or our underserved urban communities that have had a chance firsthand to experience what it means not to have access to medical care are more likely to select primary care as well,” Burke said.
dk123111@ohiou.edu
@DanielleRose84
