Consultant PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP is interviewing key stakeholders and stakeholder groups regarding issues integral to creation of a medical school for the university.
Shenandoah University has hired PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as the consultant on a feasibility study for a School of Medicine. The company has begun the first of two phases in the study, and is currently interviewing key stakeholders and stakeholder groups regarding issues integral to the medical school, as well as the possible structural model.
Two regionally recognized healthcare organizations have stepped forward to pay for the study. Valley Health System of Winchester, Va. and Inova Health System of Falls Church, Va. have agreed to evenly divide the cost of the feasibility study.
“We are very grateful to have two wonderful healthcare partners that are forward thinking and dedicated to helping solve the healthcare problems that our country is facing at this time.”
– Bryon Grigsby, senior vice president and vice president of academic affairs
“I would like to thank both Inova Health System and Valley Health System for their very generous and thoughtful contribution to this process. Their funding of this feasibility study is indicative of their commitment to ensuring high quality medical training so that they can continue providing the best quality of patient care now and into the future,” said President Tracy Fitzsimmons. “We look forward to the results of the study, and are thankful for the positive relationship our university has with these two valuable community organizations.”
Both health systems will have representatives on the university’s medical school study committee.
“We are very grateful to have two wonderful healthcare partners that are forward thinking and dedicated to helping solve the healthcare problems that our country is facing at this time,” said Bryon Grigsby, senior vice president and vice president of academic affairs, and chair of the university committee that began examining the possibility of building a medical school.
Shenandoah University’s motivations for exploring a medical school among its programmatic offerings include several related factors: a looming shortage of health care providers of all types, possible implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, a current and projected shortage of physicians (particularly in primary care), the impending retirement of nearly a third of all actively practicing physicians and the impact of the baby boomer generation retiring.
