Faced with a growing and graying population, the Board of Governors of Florida’s public universities voted on Thursday to establish two new medical schools, at Florida International University and at the University of Central Florida, to deal with a looming shortage of doctors in the state.
The institutions, which will cost taxpayers about $500-million over the next decade, will be just the second and third medical schools to open in the country in the last 20 years. Florida State University’s College of Medicine, which was approved by the state Legislature in 2000 and fully accredited just last year, is the only physician-training program to be established since 1983 (The Chronicle, February 18, 2005).
The board, which oversees Florida’s 11 public universities, voted 16 to 1 in favor of creating the medical schools, in Miami and Orlando. But the panel also said that, at the same time, the state must provide financial support to expand the state’s three existing public medical schools, at Florida State, the University of Florida, and the University of South Florida, said Mark Rosenberg, chancellor of the public-university system.
The University of Miami, a private college, also operates a medical program, in conjunction with Florida Atlantic University.
Board members had expressed concern that approving new schools could result in less state spending on the existing medical programs. “This should not be a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul,” said John W. Temple, a member of the Board of Governors.
According to estimates, Florida could face a deficit of 200,000 physicians by 2020 if more students do not graduate from medical school. Some critics have argued that creating additional medical-residency slots, not establishing new medical schools, is the quickest and cheapest way to increase the number of physicians in the state.
Officials of Florida International and of Central Florida anticipate that the new medical schools will admit their first classes in the fall of 2008. Each school is expected to graduate 120 students per year eventually, at an annual operating cost for each institution of $20-million.
John C. Hitt, president of the University of Central Florida, said campus officials had raised nearly $50-million to pay for construction costs. Florida International University has raised $30-million and is negotiating an additional $50-million in private contributions, said its president, Modesto A. Maidique.
Both officials said they expected the medical schools to generate new jobs, attract additional research funds, and enhance the local economies.
“I think it will have a transformative effect,” Mr. Maidique said.
Despite the final vote’s lopsided margin, the fate of the medical-school proposals was far from certain. The governing board had put off an earlier vote, scheduled for November, in order to give the governors additional time to study the proposals.
The vote also held political implications for the board, whose authority has been challenged by both Gov. Jeb Bush, a Republican, and the State Legislature since it was created by Florida voters in November 2002. Lawmakers still must vote on state financing for the medical schools, which enjoy strong local legislative support.
And while a state judge recently ratified the board’s powers, the experience of the panel’s predecessor, the former State Board of Regents, might have served as a cautionary tale: When the regents rejected Florida State’s bid to open a medical school, lawmakers overruled their decision, established the school, and abolished the board.
Background articles from The Chronicle:
