The University of Washington on Monday criticized as seriously flawed a feasibility study supporting for a second public medical school that would be established in Spokane by Washington State University.

WSU commissioned the study, released last week, that concluded WSU could educate medical students more cheaply than UW.

That conclusion is based on the UW School of Medicine receiving about $94.6 million in state funding in 2011. The WSU consultants preparing the study simply divided that $94.6 million figure by 440 medical students to arrive at a per-student cost to the state of $215,000.

UW regent Orin Smith called those findings an unfortunate and extremely misleading error in the report intended to guide state lawmakers who will be asked to weigh the merits of a second state-funded medical school.

In a sharply worded letter to WSU regent Mike Worthy regarding the report, Smith noted that the $94.6 million includes federal research funds and student tuition, not just state funds. Furthermore, the blend of state, federal and private money pays for the work of some 4,500 people throughout the UW medical school system not just the 440 medical students.

Smith said a more realistic figure is $70,000 per student in state support plus tuition.

Using that formula, the WSU study estimated it would cost the state about $60,000 per student at a WSU-run medical school in Spokane after a 10-year phase-in to enrollment of 120 students per class, said WSU Spokane Chancellor Lisa Brown. She noted medical schools use different funding models to arrive at state cost per student estimates.

The differences are the latest barbs between the rival universities regarding the effectiveness of WWAMI, the 40-year-old program that trains doctors for Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho through state schools and UW Medical School.

The lingering shortage of doctors in rural communities across Eastern Washington, however, spurred WSU administrators to announce last spring intentions to create an independent medical school on the fledgling WSU-Spokane campus.

The move prompted further tensions between Washingtons two biggest public universities.

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UW rips WSU-commissioned study on new medical school