http://www.srhc.com/about/documents/KUSCOMRelease.pdf 

PRESS RELEASE For Immediate Release Contact – Tom Martin Executive Director Salina Regional Health Foundation (785) 452-6088 Foundation announces $6.5 million capital campaign and purchase of downtown building to be future campus for the University of Kansas School of Medicine in Salina (May 3, 2016) – The Salina Regional Health Foundation has entered a contract to purchase the former Planter’s State Bank/Bank of America building at 138 N. Santa Fe Ave. to be the future home for the University of Kansas School of Medicine–Salina Campus. A $6.5 million capital campaign called the Blueprint for Rural Health also will soon be underway to renovate, furnish and equip the building and create an endowment for its future maintenance. The KU School of Medicine–Salina Campus opened its doors for the first class of eight medical students in July 2011 with the mission of providing students a quality medical education in a rural setting with hope that many might one day enter practice in rural Kansas. The program graduated its first class of students in May 2015 and its second class will graduate this month. A number of these first 16 graduates have entered or accepted positions with primary care residency programs and several have already committed to practice in rural communities in Kansas upon completion of training. KU School of Medicine–Salina is the smallest four-year Doctor of Medicine program in North America in respect to both class size and community setting. Other universities around the country and world have looked at KU–Salina as a model for how a satellite rural medical school campus can function and be established. KU–Salina is currently based out of the Braddick Building at Salina Regional Health Center. The 16,000 square foot building was formerly a nursing school dormitory on the hospital’s Santa Fe Campus and repurposed to accommodate the medical school. The new facility will provide 40,251 square feet of space to accommodate new curriculum changes for the school that go into effect in 2017. The new ACE Curriculum emphasizes Active Learning, Competency and Excellence, which requires a need for more smallgroup meeting space, clinical instruction and simulation labs and less space for large lecture halls. Once construction is complete the new campus will continue to be owned by the Salina Regional Health Foundation. With construction underway for a new medical school campus in Kansas City and renovations underway at the medical school campus in Wichita, a new campus in Salina will allow it to remain competitive in the future. “We want to continue to compete for the best and brightest students,” said William Cathcart-Rake, M.D., KU School of Medicine–Salina Dean. “We believe we have the processes in place and have developed a unique learning environment that allows us to be competitive with any other medical school campus. However, we want to continue to offer facilities that reach that measure. A new, larger facility also allows us the opportunity for growth in the future.” Construction and renovation efforts for the new Salina campus will begin this summer. Donnie Marrs with DMA Architects, PA of Salina is providing architectural services for the project and working on finalization of plans. The new campus is scheduled to open in June 2018. “This project is great news for people in rural medically-underserved areas throughout Kansas and great for our local medical students who are thriving and achieving tremendous academic success,” said Mike Terry, president and CEO at Salina Regional Health Center. “It also is great for the city of Salina and the downtown revitalization efforts because of the school’s future viability and potential for growth.” In 2012 the Health Resources and Services Administration identified 97 of 105 Kansas counties as having medically-underserved areas or populations. According to a 2013 study, 34 Kansas counties had two or less primary care physicians and eight had no full-time primary care physicians. KU School of Medicine–Salina has received extraordinary support from the Salina community and citizens and organizations in north central Kansas, northwest Kansas and others from around the state and country since it opened in 2011. That support again will be needed to make the Blueprint for Rural Health campaign a success. “People in rural medically-underserved areas of Kansas may one day have greater access to medical care, because of the success of this program,” said Tom Martin, executive director of the Salina Regional Health Foundation. “The Blueprint for Rural Health campaign and KU School of Medicine-Salina’s mission is a unique solution to the well-documented shortages of physicians in Kansas. We hope people throughout the region and state will see the merits of this entire effort and will join our campaign to raise $6.5 million and make a new medical school campus in Salina a reality.” To find out how you can support the Blueprint for Rural Health campaign, contact the Salina Regional Health Foundation, at (785) 452-6088. ###