St. Elizabeth Healthcare revealed today that it will donate $2.5 million to help cover the cost of tuition for the first class of the University of Kentucky medical school program on the campus of Northern Kentucky University.
Scholarships will be awarded to medical students enrolled in the class that will begin studies in fall 2019 as long as they meet the college’s financial need requirements.
UK College of Medicine tuition is $40,000 for students who live in Kentucky and $68,000 for those who live out of state. Scholarship recipients won't be required to stay in the state after graduating, but the hope is they will.
Northern Kentucky and the rest of the state are in need of more doctors, especially those who focus on primary care. I previously reported that the UK regional medical school at NKU is expected to help address the shortage.
“We spend a significant amount of money in recruitment to try to attract great talent, and this is part of that operation of being a medical center,” said Garren Colvin, CEO of St. Elizabeth Healthcare. “It’s not as much of a burden on the annual financials as appears on the surface. The initial investment will be over a minimum of four years.”
St. Elizabeth will partner with UK to try to raise a total of $10 million from local donors to fund the scholarship program, Colvin told me.
“In providing these scholarships, we are making an enormous investment in the future of the health of our community,” Colvin said.
“With our partnership with the University of Kentucky, we will be able to provide additional benefits to both organizations as well as the region and commonwealth by directly assisting in medical school support and recruitment for the Northern Kentucky campus,” Colvin said.
Admissions will be handled by UK with input from NKU and St. Elizabeth. If the grades and Medical College Admission Test scores of undergraduates are similar among applicants, preference is expected to be given to residents of Northern Kentucky in hopes that they will end up practicing medicine in the area.
Colvin told me that Edgewood-based St. Elizabeth would be interested in hiring every one of the medical school's graduates. St. Elizabeth intends to work with UK to create a variety of residency programs for the new doctors. The hospital system already has one for family medicine.
The St. E hospital system, which is Northern Kentucky’s largest employer, now hires more than 50 doctors a year through its affiliated medical practice because of attrition or new positions. The system intends to hire 56 doctors this year, Colvin said.
Scholarship recipients must remain in good academic standing and maintain continuous, full-time enrollment at the Northern Kentucky campus as they progress toward completion of the MD degree.
“We are grateful to St. Elizabeth’s leadership and the donors who support this remarkable gift, one that will directly support medical students and ultimately the patients whose names the donors may never know,” said Eli Capilouto, president of the University of Kentucky. “That is the highest form of giving, and it is the highest honor we can receive as a partner in this endeavor.”
The goal is to enroll 35 students the first year. Eventually, UK hopes to enroll 40 students a year in the four-year program, which means 160 medical students would ultimately be enrolled at any given time. Medical degrees would be bestowed by the University of Kentucky.
Clinical instruction for UK students who train to become doctors at the satellite campus at NKU will be provided by St. Elizabeth Healthcare.
First- and second-year students would spend most of their time on campus at NKU, while third- and fourth-year students would make clinical rounds at St. Elizabeth hospitals or receive training at the offices of local doctors.
Sponsored by the Diocese of Covington, the nonprofit system operates St. Elizabeth hospitals in Edgewood, Fort Thomas, Florence and Williamstown as well as a Covington ambulatory center with a 24/7 emergency room, a Falmouth drug and alcohol treatment center, and more than 100 primary care and specialty office locations.