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Cooper Medical School of Rowan University
On Thursday, June 25, Governor Corzine signed an executive order that calls upon Rowan to develop a new four-year allopathic medical school in partnership with Cooper University Hospital in Camden. As you may know, the University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey has been the only institution to offer medical degrees in the State for the past 30 years. The Governor's decision, however, paves the way for a Rowan Medical School, based in Camden, to be created in an expedited fashion. Our charge is to have our first class of students begin as early as 2012. Funds for this new medical school will be transferred from UMDNJ to Rowan, including funds for the debt service to construct a new medical building in Camden.
We are proud of the fact that we have earned Governor Corzine's and Cooper's confidence, and we very much look forward to helping build on the hospital's already excellent reputation as one of the best in the nation.
Cooper and Rowan will not be the only beneficiaries of this partnership. Together we'll be able to address the critical need for physicians locally and nationally, and more importantly, we will be able to raise the level of health care and education throughout the region. This is a wonderful development for Rowan, Cooper and all of South Jersey.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Farish, Ph.D.
President
Press Release:
Governor Corzine Has Announced a New Four Year Medical School in Camden – Rowan/Cooper Partnership
Camden, NJ --- Rowan University and Cooper University Hospital announced on Friday, June 26, that they are partnering in the formation of a new, four-year allopathic medical school in Camden, which will be known as Cooper Medical School of Rowan University.
"This is a major milestone for Cooper, Rowan University, the City of Camden and the entire South Jersey region. This partnership unites two dynamic institutions that are financially strong and culturally and geographically aligned," said George E. Norcross, III, Chairman of the Board at Cooper.
"We are grateful to Governor Jon S. Corzine for recognizing the tremendous healthcare, academic and economic benefits that this partnership will bring to the region and for reallocating existing resources to make it happen," said Dr. Donald Farish, Rowan University President.
The new medical school will be the first four-year allopathic medical school in South Jersey. Currently, Cooper provides clinical training to third and fourth year medical students from University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ)/Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. Independent studies by both Cooper and UMDNJ concluded that there is a significant need for a four-year medical school in South Jersey, and that Cooper and its medical faculty are well prepared to meet that need. "We are appreciative of our 30 year relationship with UMDNJ. This affiliation has positioned Cooper for the endeavor announced today," added John P. Sheridan, Jr., President and CEO of Cooper.
The newly-established Cooper Medical School of Rowan University will be financed by existing annual allocations to the Camden Campus and will not require any additional taxpayer dollars. Construction of a medical school building is planned for the southwest corner of Broadway and Benson Streets.
Rowan University, a selective, public university located in Glassboro, New Jersey, is renowned for its science and technology facilities and programs. With the addition of this new medical school, Rowan University joins UMDNJ in becoming the only public universities in the State of New Jersey to offer medical education.
"This is a significant expansion of our graduate programs and we are proud to be aligned with Cooper on this exciting endeavor," said Farish. "Our existing programs will dovetail with a medical school curriculum and provide for future expansion of our science, technology and allied health degrees."
Joan Davis, vice chair of Cooper's Board and a resident of Camden said, "This medical school will be a catalyst for the redevelopment of the City of Camden which will spawn many employment opportunities for our citizens."
The new medical school is part of a $600 million expansion of the Health Sciences Campus in Camden. In December 2008, Cooper completed the largest single construction project in the city in more than 30 years with the opening of a 10-story patient Pavilion. The Department of Veterans Affairs recently opened a Community Based Outpatient Clinic at Broadway and Stevens Street. Planning is also in progress for the construction of a $75 million Cooper Cancer Institute, and neighborhood parks and streetscape improvement project is currently underway. The Health Sciences Campus also includes the Coriell Institute for Medical Research.
A four-year allopathic medical school located in Camden has been a long held vision for South Jersey, and the City of Camden. That dream is moving toward reality.
The Governor has filed an Executive Reorganization Plan authorizing the creation of a four year allopathic medical school. The medical school will be part of Rowan University in affiliation with Cooper University Hospital. It will be located in Camden on the Health Care Campus of Cooper University Hospital.
Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (RWJMS) has been located in Camden since 1981. Three hundred Cooper University Hospital Physicians are the clinical faculty of RWJMS -- Camden. They provide all of the teaching for those RWJMS medical students receiving their third and fourth years clinical training in Camden. These Cooper physicians will be faculty members of the new medical school. A Dean and basic sciences faculty will be recruited for the new medical school while Rowan University is applying for accreditation by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME).
Cooper's existing Camden Campus has been described recently, by three highly regarded consultants (from the Association of Academic Health Centers, the University of Florida, and the University of Michigan, respectively), who were appointed by UMDNJ to review the readiness of Cooper's Camden Campus to be a four year medical school, as "remarkably well prepared to expand its medical clinical training into a full four year medical school".
Governor Corzine has submitted a plan under the above act to the Legislature. The plan will transfer functions and resources from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) to Rowan to allow Rowan to move forward with the creation of a new four year medical school. The existing resources and annual level of funding to RWJMS - Camden are sufficient to fully fund the new four year medical school when the tuition from the additional students is taken into consideration, along with research grants and contracts. The Governor's plan provides for the teaching of the RWJMS - Camden medical students in Camden until the end of the transition period in 2013.
As part of the plan, a new medical school building will be built in the City of Camden. The Legislature first appropriated funds toward this project in 2002 in the Camden Revitalization Legislation.
The Legislature has sixty (60) days to review and reject the Plan submitted by the Governor. If sixty days passes without rejection, the Plan has the full force of law.
The new medical school in Camden is a major regional milestone.
The creation of a four year M.D. program in South Jersey has been talked about for nearly 30 years; now it is set to be a reality.
Creation of an allopathic medical school puts South Jersey “on the map” academically. It rounds-out the strong graduate education offerings in the region (Rowan and Rutgers); and strengthens the backbone for a growing biomedical industry sector.
This new medical school furthers the vision of Rowan University to enhance its academic standing through its graduate program expansion.
This is a smart, public-private partnership that tackles HEALTH CARE, HEALTH DELIVERY and ECONOMIC problems.
Earlier this year, an independent consultant group called the Camden campus “remarkably well prepared to expand its medical clinical training into a full four year medical school.”
Health care workforce. New Jersey has a longstanding problem of graduating fewer M.D.s than necessary; the State ranks 33rd in medical school graduates per capita. This amplifies the national shortage of doctors, puts NJ in a precarious position, and requires hospitals to rely on foreign medical graduates. This medical school will provide more physicians for New Jersey and will offer more opportunities for our citizens to receive a medical education.
Health care delivery. South Jersey has a longstanding problem of watching 30,000 South Jersey residents cross the river to Pennsylvania, each year, to get specialty care at academic medical centers. With this announcement, New Jersey will be better positioned to keep South Jerseyans in-state to receive specialty medical care.
Economic impact. South Jersey loses $2 billion in economic activity to Philadelphia academic medical centers each year. With this announcement, we will begin to reverse this trend. And further, because medical schools create at least $5 in economic activity for every $1 spent, we will be creating an economic driver.
In a budget crunch, enacting this long-planned four year medical school is a positive thing the State can do without spending a penny more… it is a stimulus-style project.
The Corzine Administration has sought to respond to current problems, while also making the State more successful in the long term. That is precisely what today’s action does: it puts New Jersey citizens’ health, and the health of our economy, in better shape 5, 10 and 50 years down the road.
Finally: not only does this announcement address several problems for the State, at no additional cost to the taxpayer… it also marries 2 dynamic South Jersey institutions – Rowan and Cooper – to carry off a large-scale academic expansion/economic development project.
These two “anchor institutions” have strong track records on academic achievement, teaching, and service - and as economic drivers and revitalizers of their communities.
The creation of a new, four year school does not require an increase in the current annual level of spending.
The funds presently spent each year in Camden for medical education, other existing resources, tuition from 400 students, and a reasonable estimate of research grants and contracts, are sufficient to accredit, build and operate a new four year medical school.
Under the Governor’s Reorganization Plan of RWJMS – Camden students will continue to be educated here through the transition period ending in 2013.
Rowan is committed to expand its mission, gain the appropriate accreditation, and finance the new medical school building.
In sum, this is a “win-win-win.”
It puts the accelerator on a stimulative project for a four year medical school in South Jersey.
It marries two successful institutions, and their collective resources, to carry off the project.
It addresses looming health care workforce and health care delivery issues…
It will provide a large economic boost to the City and region.
And, it builds the backbone for a growing industry sector – medicine, biomedicine and technology.
Q & A about Cooper Medical School of Rowan University
Q. Why a new Medical School? A. There is a shortage of M.D. graduates, and we need to solve this problem before it becomes a health care crisis. New Jersey ranks 33rd of all states in graduating M.D.s. New Jersey also has a higher-than-average number of active physicians nearing retirement. Further, New Jersey has become highly dependent on international medical graduates to fill positions.
There is a physician shortage on a national basis as well. The Association of American Medical Colleges has recommended a 30 percent increase in medical school slots.
At a time when there is a call for increased medical school graduates, it is logical that the most effective and cost-efficient way to ramp up is for highly successful 2-year clinical campuses, such as the one in Camden, to evolve into new 4-year schools.
Q. Why Rowan and Cooper? A. This will give Southern New Jersey its own allopathic medical school, which will serve as an engine to stimulate both academic and economic growth in the region. National benchmarks indicate a five dollar multiplier effect for every one dollar invested in a medical school.
In recent years in Camden, the "Eds and Meds" institutions, have been able to leverage the state's investment in a very successful fashion.
The marriage of these two dynamic, lean and geographically proximate institutions will foster creativity and allow efficient decision making.
Rowan's graduate programs will dovetail well with a medical school curriculum.
The resulting strong academic medical center can better compete with Philadelphia academic medical institutions, thereby keeping health care dollars in New Jersey. Right now, there is a $2 billion annual out-migration of health care spending and related economic activity across the river to Pennsylvania.
A new regionally-based medical school should appeal to the South Jersey philanthropic community, boosting fundraising for the new school.
The new medical school envisions producing physicians who are equipped to help solve our country's health care delivery problems, and who have a sense of social responsibility.
Q. Why will this Medical School be successful? A. Rowan is an excellent University with a great vision for the future.
The Cooper faculty is experienced and ready. Cooper has served as a clinical campus for the UMDNJ/Robert Wood Johnson Medical School for the past thirty years. Cooper's physician faculty is highly experienced in training medical students.
The physical plant is strong. With the opening of its state-of-the-art eleven floor Pavilion, Cooper's physical plant has been fully modernized to accommodate the clinical training needs of a four year allopathic Medical School.
Outside experts recommend this endeavor. Two sets of outside experts have concluded that the evolution of the Camden Campus to a four year medical school is feasible and the campus is well prepared to achieve that goal. appropriate to proceed with these plans. The outside consultants, hired by UMDNJ, concluded that "the Cooper Health System appears remarkably well prepared to achieve that goal.
Proximity is a plus. Cooper and Rowan are bound together by their locations in southern New Jersey and their desire to serve the needs of the community and participate in its economic development. Their proximity will also facilitate faculty and student interaction and the sharing of laboratories, and other facilities. Rowan has already made clear its commitment to expansion in Camden, through its recent purchase of a building to expand undergraduate programs here.
Rowan brings strong academic assets. Rowan has the capacity to assist the new medical school in the development of needed academic infrastructure, such as the library system, information systems, and more. Both Cooper and Rowan are interested in creativity and innovation and will complement each other well.
Q. How can the Cooper Medical School at Rowan University be created? A. The primary vehicle is the Executive Reorganization Act N.J.S.A. 52: 14c-1 et seq. Pursuant to that act, the Governor may transfer "the whole or part of an agency, or the whole or part of the functions thereof, to the jurisdiction of another agency."
Q. Why not UMDNJ? A. This was a decision by the Governor to move a four-year school forward immediately. UMDNJ is not in a financial position to finance the necessary new building at this time.
Q. Where will the money come from to run the new Medical School? A. Existing levels of funding to the Camden Campus plus tuition from the new students and reasonable assumptions with respect to research grants and private donations are sufficient to run the new Medical School.
Q. How will a new medical school building be achieved? A. Site acquisition, at the southwest corner of Broadway and Benson Streets, in Camden, is nearing completion and has already been paid for. A 160,000 square foot education and research building has been preliminarily designed. Nine million dollars towards construction of the new building has been appropriated through the Camden Recovery Act of 2002.
Rowan has excellent credit and bonding capacity. Based on its excellent financial rating and reputation in the investment community, Rowan is able to self-finance the new building.
The new Medical School also has great potential to attract strong donor support from the private sector.
Q. What are the next steps to the creation of the school? A. Rowan, with Cooper's assistance, must now embark on a rather lengthy (two-to-three year) and arduous process of formally applying to the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) to achieve preliminary accreditation. There are multiple steps, including recruiting the Founding Dean and the leadership team; finalization of the design and the subsequent erection of the new medical school building; the development of the curriculum and completion of the extensive LCME application.
Q. When will the first students be able to start? A. The goal is to accept students to enter in September, 2012.
Q. How many students will there be in each class? A. 100.
Q. What will happen to the Robert Wood Johnson students already "in the pipeline" at Cooper? A. The Governor's transition provides for the education of RWJMS students in Camden until 2013.
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