Roseman University has come a long way from its humble beginnings.
The private, nonprofit began as the Nevada College of Pharmacy. More than fifteen years later, Roseman has an annual budget of more than a $100 million.
And in two years, it will open its first medical school in Las Vegas.
This, mind you, in the shadow of UNLV’s push to open its own medical school in downtown Las Vegas.
However, Roseman University co-founder, Dr. Renee Coffman, and the founding dean of the medical school, Dr. Mark Penn, both say there is a lack of doctors in Southern Nevada so the schools won’t be competing for dollars or students.
“There is a great need in southern Nevada for medical professionals of all stripes,” Coffman said.
“It takes a lot of people working together not necessarily competitively but to come together around the table and do things together,” Penn said.
Roseman University is private school, which means it doesn’t get money from the state. UNLV is a public school and is asking for $27 million in state funds to jump start its medical school.
Coffman told KNPR’s State of Nevada that the other difference is in its educational model.
“We have a very unique educational model,” Coffman said. “The overall educational model will be very untraditional as medical schools go.”
Coffman said the school works to make sure all students reach a high standard of academic achievement. She said most schools allow students to continue with a 70 percent average but that is not the case at Roseman.
“All of our students have to get a 90 percent or better on every test that they take,” she said.
One of the main goals for everyone working to expand healthcare education in Nevada is to increase the number of post graduate slots. Medical school takes four years from there students must go on to residency programs the length of which depend on the specialty.
Residents tend to stay in the area where they did their post-graduate work. An increase in residency spots in Nevada would improve the number of doctors the state has.
“It’s very important that we have a well-established residency program across this entire state so that we can impact a location so we can impact the recruitment of students and eventually residents and eventually physicians into those areas,” Penn said.
Roseman University has started the process to get accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education and hopes to have its preliminary accreditation by June of next year.
The medical school will be housed in the former Nevada Cancer Institute research complex in Summerlin.
Dr. Renee Coffman, president and co-founder, Roseman University; Dr. Mark Penn, founding dean, Roseman University