ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, February 7, 1996 TAG: 9602070028
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITER
Roanoke's College of Health Sciences wants $1 million from the state in the next two years to help it gain independence from its patron, Community Hospital of Roanoke Valley.
The school has been unable to find a new partner since it learned last spring that the hospital will stop an annual subsidy of $350,000 after 1997. The state money would allow it to operate at its current level and make it possible to reassure a new freshman class of the school's future, said college President Harry Nickens.
Without the College of Health Sciences, the state will lose a major supplier of health care workers for much of rural Western Virginia, he said.
Among the school's degree programs are six specialties where workers are in short supply, he said. Also, the college is scheduled to begin in 1997 the state's first physician's assistant program to help meet the demand for workers who can provide many of the same services a physician can.
More than 500 of the school's 600 students come from 21 Western Virginia counties, 19 of which have been designated by the federal government as medically underserved. Eighty-five percent of last year's graduates returned home to work, Nickens said.
Nickens argues that if the state doesn't help the college over this hump, it still will have to spend the money to help some other institution supply the programs to prepare the area's health care workers.
The school's campus is on Jefferson Street adjacent to Community Hospital, but it runs satellite programs in Fishersville and Lynchburg and offers a course through public television.
The college's $4million annual budget is important to the Roanoke Valley, too, Nickens said.
The amendments asking for inclusion in the state's 1996-1998 budget identifies the request as needed to "assist Roanoke city in retaining a major employer." The patrons are Del. Richard Cranwell, D-Vinton, and state Sen. John Edwards, D-Roanoke.
The college has been moving toward independence from Community Hospital since 1992, when it marked its 10th anniversary. Its timetable to become self-supporting was speeded up because competition in health care has forced hospitals such as Community to look for ways to lower their costs.
Community, following the lead of its parent, Carilion Health System, decided to get out of ventures not directly related to providing patient care. The hospital has promised to give the college its equipment and let it continue at the same site when it goes on its own.
LENGTH: Medium: 52 lines KEYWORDS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1996by CNB