HAL ROGERS

State, federal and local dignitaries proclaimed Friday as a historic day for the region as Pikeville College held a ground-breaking ceremony for its new medical school tower.

Pikeville College President Paul E. Patton laid out plans to construct a new nine-story facility to house the burgeoning medical school along with a new cafeteria/commons area for entire campus population earlier this year. The building will be located on the hillside on the right side of the college infamous 99 Steps. Throughout the summer work has been ongoing to raze the aging Marvin Student Center which previously occupied the space.

Included among those who were on hand for the formal ceremony to begin construction efforts were Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear and U.S. Rep. Harold "Hal" Rogers. Also, numerous state and local politicians and a large contingent of medical school students were present.

"This is an exciting day for Pikeville College and this region," said Beshear. "This project demonstrates the attitude and commitment that will carry Kentucky our of the economic recession this country is in — not shellshocked and shattered, but able and ambitious."

He said it is this type of investment in infrastructure that will bring prosperity to both the college and the community.

Beshear called the new tower for the Pikeville College School of Osteopathic Medicine "a bold step" that "zeroed in" on a need in Central Appalachia. Showing his support for the project, the governor announced a $500,000 grant he helped secure from the Appalachian Regional Commission to help defray the construction costs of the new facility.

"This medical school was a leap of faith," he said. "I assure you that faith and the the hard work everyone put in here has paid of in spades. The proof is here today that this (medical) school and this college is making a huge difference."

Since its inception, the PCSOM has been preparing and encouraging students to enter primary care practice and to locate those practices in rural areas especially Central Appalachian, which Rogers called a "doctor sparse" region of the country.

"We are determined that our people have the same opportunity for good health care as in any urban part of the country," Rogers continued. "When this medical school was first envisioned its was that a vision. People questioned if a medical school in the rural hills of Eastern Kentucky could survive. This project is a resounding testimony to that vision."

To date, the Pikeville College School of Osteopathic Medicine has graduated more than 600 physicians with more than 60 percent from Ashland to Asheville, N.C., along U.S. 23, according to Terry Dotson, chairman of the Pikeville College Board of Trustees.

"Chad Perry had a dream to bring establish a medical school in Eastern Kentucky," Dotson said. "People thought he was crazy. Now this medical school has exceeded anyone's expectations."

According to Pikeville College officals, the new tower will include two lecture halls, a gross anatomy lab, two research labs, offices, small group classrooms and student study space. A clinical skills training and evaluation center that will house 12 specially-equipped examination rooms will be within the building and serve as training and testing centers for students in programs using standardized patients and high-fidelity robotic patient simulators. Students in the Elizabeth Akers Elliott Nursing Program will also be able to utilize the space for similar training. An expanded osteopathic manipulative medicine lab and clinic will provide learning opportunities, as well as housing PCSOM’s free community clinic. Plans for the building also include a new cafeteria for the campus community.

The new educational facility and expanded clinical skills center is expected to cost $25 million. Ancillary costs will elevate the project to about $30 million. Pikeville College initiated a capital construction campaign last fall and anticipates receiving $8-10 million in gifts, grants and corporate support for the project. The building is scheduled for completion in March 2012.

In late September, the USDA Rural Development administration announced that the college had been selected to receive a $26.5 million loan to construct the new building.

“This Recovery Act project will enable more students, especially those in the Appalachian region, to pursue their goals of higher education in the medical field,” said Fern. “Healthcare is a priority of this administration, and the Community Facilities loan and grant program is one of many at USDA that ensure rural communities can create wealth, be self-sustaining and thrive economically.”

PCSOM celebrated a milestone in May, graduating its 10th class of osteopathic physicians. “Kentucky is already facing a critical physician shortage, which is expected to worsen in the coming years,” said Boyd Buser, D.O., dean of the medical school. “This new facility will expand our ability to help meet the need of the medically underserved areas of rural Kentucky and Appalachia. We have kept the promise we made when the school was founded, and we are committed to doing even more in the future.”

PCSOM has been ranked by U.S. News and World Report as one of the Top 20 medical schools nationally in rural medicine, according to Patton.