Corporate Achievement in Health Care: The Medical College of Wisconsin
The Wisconsin Hospital Association issued a report in 2011 indicating that Wisconsin would be short 100 physicians each year for the next decade.
In order to help address that shortage, the Wauwatosa-based Medical College of Wisconsin decided to open two additional campuses.
MCW-Green Bay opened in July and MCW-Central Wisconsin, which is primarily housed in Wausau, is scheduled to open in July 2016. Each campus will have approximately 25 students per year, according to Dr. Lisa Dodson, dean of MCW-Central Wisconsin.
“MCW took on the responsibility for 50 of those positions between the two campuses,” she said. “We’re trying to help rectify the shortage.”
Dodson said the objective is to build up the primary care and psychiatry workforce for smaller communities in the northern half of the state.
“We looked around the state and settled on these two communities as having the appropriate medical resources and the ability to expand our medical curriculum,” she said.
According to Dodson, research and medical education experience shows that students who do not experience smaller communities do not consider them once it is time to decide where they want to practice.
That said, the Medical College had no trouble recruiting students to attend MCW-Green Bay and MCW-Central Wisconsin, Dodson said. For instance, more than 2,000 students applied for the 26 spots at MCW-Green Bay.
“For us, the number of students wasn’t a problem. It was finding students who will benefit most from smaller environments,” she said. “We want to train people closer to home, where they can maintain their community and family connections.”
The classrooms and administrative space for MCW-Green Bay are located in the new Gehl-Mulva Science Center at St. Norbert College.
As for MCW-Central Wisconsin, classroom and administrative spaces are being constructed at Aspirus Wausau Hospital. Academic partners include Northcentral Technical College, University of Wisconsin – Marathon County, University of Wisconsin – Marshfield/Wood County and University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point.
MCW-Central Wisconsin is also partnering with central Wisconsin area physician groups and health systems, including Aspirus, Ministry Health Care and the Tomah VA Medical Center.
