Medical School Targets Rural Patients

By Genoa Sibold-Cohn

His crew has benefited from their recycling efforts, too. Costello gave each foreman a gift for Christmas and plans to have an end-of-the-project barbecue using money raised from recycling.

Yakima will be getting a larger gift in the coming years.

Morris said the economic benefits will be “enormous.”

During the construction of the building, the project is expected to generate $15.2 million for Yakima County, Morris said.

E.D. Hovee & Company and Cascade Planning Group were retained by the university to evaluate the initial and long-term economic and fiscal benefits of the proposed college. According to the report, at least 90 percent of

the expected $25 million project is expected to be spent in the Yakima area, with at least 50 percent spent in Yakima County. Another $7.8 million in other Yakima County business revenues are expected to boost the economy.

Based on the planned staffing levels of up to 44 employees and full enrollment, projections indicate $13.6 million will be spent on housing in the Yakima area, the report concluded. By the time the university reaches full enrollment that figure will increase to $22.8 million. When the medical school opens, students are estimated to make $602,000 in taxable purchases on household items. That figure is expected to increase to $2.4 million once the university reaches full enrollment.

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Come summer, the Pacific Northwest will be home to its first new medical school in 60 years.

Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences is building a college of osteopathic medicine on a 43-acre property in Yakima, Wash. There are currently 23 other accredited osteopathic colleges in the country, but none in the Pacific North-west’s five-state region.

“Yakima is where the idea was basically incubated and there were three people early on who were the first who discussed the project,” said Tim Morris, the university’s vice president/chief operating officer and one of the three who formulated a plan in 2004.

The university hopes to contribute to Yakima’s medically underserved population by bringing trained osteopathic physicians into the rural area.

The university’s 70 students and 29 faculty and staff begin their school year on Aug. 4. According to the American Osteopathic Association, those accepted to an osteopathic school of medicine complete a four-year academic study focusing on preventive medicine and comprehensive patient care. After completing their course work, doctors of osteopathic medicine (DO) serve two to six-year residencies in the same medical disciplines as allopathic (MD) physicians.

The crew broke ground on the 45,000-square-foot medical school building in May. The two-story, brick and stone school will include classrooms and laboratory, media, learning resource and office space.

The $14.7 million construction project is expected to be completed in late June, said Glenn Costello, job site superintendent with KDA Construction of Salem, Ore. His team includes assistant Mike Maahs and senior project manager Scott Ness.

The Temple family of Yakima donated 19.6 acres of land worth $7.2 million for the school site. An additional 23 acres are available for university development, which will eventually include a total of 60,000-square-feet and eight additional schools on the campus.

The university hopes to raise $40 million to complete the project in its entirety, Morris said. More than half of the next $6 million dollar goal has been raised.

The construction of the two-story, brick and stone building requires an arduous crew of 50 to100 workers who put in 12 to 13-hour days.

The project has been faced with challenges from the very first day of work.

The crew identified a groundwater issue when it nearly lost a $350,000 scraper that sunk down its belly, said Costello, adding it was irrigation season.

“It brought the groundwater to our attention right away,” Costello said.

Project engineer Brad Card of PLSA Engineering in Yakima identified an active water flow under the building. The entire site was raised two feet to avoid structural problems, Costello said.

Despite a potentially major setback, the nonprofit university has saved at least $350,000 because of “valued engineering” practices that found less expensive ways to do mechanical and electrical work. An estimated $80,000 was chopped from project costs by using red iron steel instead of heavy timber, Costello notes.

Costello has mandated that his crew recycle everything. The former Californian has been recycling on his job sites for 20 years. He requires recycling for materials like wood, metal, scrap wire, aluminum cans and concrete.

“Recycling is the number one deal because there’s so much garbage that comes from the construction of a building,” Costello said.