Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies

New med schools needed, board told

Claims of a looming doctor shortage meet with skepticism as UCF and FIU make pitches for expensive new schools.

JACKSONVILLE - Education officials, medical professionals and politicians joined forces Thursday to lobby for the creation of quarter-billion-dollar medical schools at the University of Central Florida in Orlando and Florida International University in Miami.

The presentations to the state Board of Governors included pages of statistics indicating Florida has a growing doctor shortage.

The best way to meet the need generated by an aging physician workforce and an expanding population, the university presidents told the board, is to build two more medical schools, bringing the state's total to five.

"If something is not in the pipeline now, we will not produce it in 2015," UCF president John Hitt said.

The presidents told the board the new schools were needed to help underserved populations in mid and south Florida. More than 2-million residents in Miami-Dade County, most of them minorities, do not have access to proper medical care, said FIU president Modesto "Mitch" Maidique. The schools also would help keep homegrown medical students in the state, Hitt said. Students who complete their residencies here are statistically more likely to remain here, he said.

But most of the Board of Governors seemed skeptical.

The primary concern was the cost. Each school would require about $20-million a year to operate. By their 10th year, the schools would cost the state a combined $500-million, though their projected economic impact by that time would be nearly $800-million, according to the proposal.

"It's great to say the economic impact is X," said board member Sheila McDevitt. "But there are a lot of demands that come with the growth of such things."

Commissioner of Education John Winn told the board the state does not have an "infinite amount of dollars" at its disposal, and that if money were allocated for two new medical schools, another education initiative could suffer.

"I don't know how that stacks up when you look at the need for more doctors," he said. "I will be looking at not only the arguments and the data. I will be making my decision in large part in a greater context."

Meanwhile, Broward County physician Zachariah P. Zachariah expressed doubt that doctors trained in Florida will stay here.

"If history is any guide, 75 percent of them will leave the state," Zachariah said. "To fund a small number of doctors who ultimately will practice elsewhere is an unwise spending of taxpayer money."

In the end, the board decided to hire a consulting firm to review the data. Chairwoman Carolyn Roberts said there won't be a vote until March.

Thursday's presentations came a year after FIU and UCF first approached the board. The two schools produced similar proposals. Each already has raised millions of dollars from businesses and private donors.

The Board of Governors, as overseer of the state's 11-university system, must authorize all new university programs. It had been scheduled to vote on the proposals at Thursday's meeting but decided last week that it needed more time.

Board members have reason for caution. When Florida State University asked the Board of Regents - this board's predecessor - for a new medical school several years ago, the regents said no. The decision was overruled by lawmakers who started the school, then abolished the regents.