The University District Health Clinic is on the Horizon

Last week, the WSU Board of Regents met in Spokane and among the items it took action on was the approval of the design of the University District Health Clinic, which will be built on our campus. The clinic is part of the Spokane Teaching Health Center, a consortium of WSU Spokane, Providence Health Care and Empire Health Foundation.

The clinic will be a teaching site for medical residents.

Residencies provide three or more years of training in a medical specialty after four years of medical school are completed. Residency training is required before a physician can practice independently, and is a good predictor of where a physician will settle down and practice medicine.

In Washington, there are approximately 1,600 residency slots, but about 1,500 on those are on the west side of the state. This past year, the consortium was fortunate to receive six additional residency slots because of a grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). The grant, though, expires on Sept. 30, 2015. If the HRSA grant is renewed, the consortium plans to apply for additional funds and could create up to 39 additional residency slots in Spokane.

All of this would be good for our region and state, and the U-District Health Clinic is one way we are working to increase residency training in Spokane.

View more renderings here (PDF).

Clinic renderings courtesy of NAC Architecture