Proposed medical school to serve Southwest, Southside Virginia gets grant

WYTHEVILLE -- The proposed King College medical school gained considerable traction this week, receiving a $25 million grant that assures it would be built in Virginia.

The Virginia Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission, which met Thursday in Wytheville, approved the grant as part of more than $30 million in appropriations for projects in Southwest Virginia.

King College, a private Bristol, Tenn.-based school, announced its desire to start a medical school less than a year ago.

"This provides the lead investment in this project that will serve Southwest Virginia and Southside Virginia," college President Greg Jordan said after the grant was approved. "It's an enormous contribution."

The school of medicine and health science center is expected to be built near Bristol Regional Medical Center, Jordan said. He declined to discuss a specific location.

Wellmont Health System, which operates the medical center and other area hospitals, announced last year that it would serve as a clinical partner on the project.

"This is a substantial sum of money," commission Executive Director Neal Noyes told the commission's Southwest Virginia economic-development committee. "But they [King] are going to have to raise a substantial amount -- $25 million and about $50 million to operate, so that's leveraging $3 for each of our dollars. This is a game-changer."

A King-funded consultant's study shows the school would create about 500 jobs and have a $74 million annual economic impact within a few years. Both totals are forecast to grow substantially over the next 20 years.

Expanding the medical school's service area to the Southside portion of Virginia, which also is served by the commission, played a key role in the approval process.

"We're asking them to reach out to Southside Virginia by sending students out there to their clinicals and to hold a seat or two for qualified Southside individuals to come to the medical school," said state Del. Terry G. Kilgore, R-Scott.

Kilgore, the commission's vice chairman, said that region has many of the same health care needs as Southwest Virginia.

"They have the same shortages of physicians and health-care needs as we do," Kilgore said.

Jordan said he looks forward to working with the extended region.

"It is perfectly consistent with the original vision. That was to serve a broader, five-state region. Southside has an equal number of opportunities as does Southwest Virginia to grow health care and develop resources that provide greater access," Jordan said. "They need primary-care physicians as much as any other region. That's a national issue, and we believe this project will address that challenge."