By the summer of 2017, Salt Lake City-based University of Utah School of Medicine will no longer be the only medical school in the state. Parker, Colo.-based Rocky Vista University College of Osteopathic Medicine is opening a new campus in Ivins, Utah, according to Desert News.
The $30 million Ivins campus is expected to be completed by July 2017, and the school will welcome its first class next fall.
David Park, DO, the campus' dean, commented on the positive aspects of bringing a second medical school to the state. The University of Utah School of Medicine is "an excellent school," but "one medical school is not enough," he said, according to the report. "[The University of Utah College of Medicine], as well as most MD schools, don't produce enough primary care physicians," he added.
And that's exactly what RVUCOM plans to do with its Ivins campus. Utah's current physician shortage is palpable; the state only has 65 active primary physicians per 100,000 individuals, according to 2015 data from the American Medical Association. This compares to a national average of 91.1 primary care physicians per 100,000 people.