SAN BERNARDINO >> San Bernardino County Supervisors on Tuesday approved, without discussion, a $10 million, five-year agreement to support the effort for a new medical school in Colton.

The California University of Science and Medicines School of Medicine is expected to open in summer 2018 inside temporary headquarters in San Bernardino and then move to its permanent home just north of Arrowhead Regional Medical Center, the county hospital in Colton, said Dr. Dev GnanaDev, founder, president and CEO of CalMed.

Remodeling for the temporary site is ongoing at the former Everest College site at 217 E. Club Center Drive, just west of Waterman Avenue and south of the 10 Freeway.

GnanaDev is also chief of surgery at ARMC and president of the Medical Board of California. Previously, he was a longtime ARMC medical director and is a past president of the California Medical Association.

Originally, CalMed had hoped to open the new medical school in Colton this fall, but GnanaDev said Tuesday, during an interview following the supervisors vote, that it is easier to get necessary accreditations from an existing structure than from a new building.

The initial class will grow from 60 students to 90 the second year and 120 the third year. From then on, each graduating class will start with 120 students, he said.

The new medical school will work to develop additional residency slots at several hospital locations to place its graduates, GnanaDev said.

At another location, also adjacent to ARMC, the California University of Science and Medicine will ultimately include a school to train biomedical engineers, physician assistants and physical therapists, as well as provide nurses with graduate-level education opportunities.

The memorandum of understanding calls for a collaboration in clinical research studies, education and in the delivery and improvement of health care services at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center.

The memorandum will result in the use of the countys discretionary general funding in the amount of $1 million annually for five years, while ARMC will provide an additional $5 million from its Enterprise Fund, according to county documents.

The agreement will terminate if CalMed fails to obtain appropriate accreditations on or before July 1, 2018.

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The agreement is a cause of concern for Pomona-based Western Universitys College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific.

Dr. Paula Crone, medical school dean, said, Western U has a 40-year track record of service and success in the Inland Empire and Southern California, and is an essential source of the badly-needed primary care providers in this region.

We have a long-standing relationship with San Bernardino County and ARMC, where our graduates have filled literally thousands of rotation and residency slots over the years, without public funding coming to the university or the college to support that. So anything that might diminish training opportunities for our students and graduates is a blow.

Robert Lovingood, chairman of the county Board of Supervisors, explained in a statement why the board approved the memorandum of understanding.

ARMC has a number of agreements with universities, colleges, junior colleges, and technical and trade schools through which it provides on-site clinical training for students. The training provided at ARMC prepares medical students to obtain their degree, license and/or certification, Lovingood said in the statement.

Riverside and San Bernardino counties have one of the lowest ratios of active patient care physicians. The agreement supports the creation, maintenance and growth of jobs and economic value in the county by offering medical education locally with preference to county residents, which will result in an increased pool of locally-trained health care workers remaining in the area, Lovingood said.

The contribution announced today (Tuesday) from the County of San Bernardino is a wonderful testament to the faith in the mission of California University of Science and Medicine and the value it will provide to the county, community and Arrowhead Regional Medical Center, said Elizabeth Nikels, spokeswoman for the Prime Healthcare Foundation.

California University School of Medicine and the Prime Healthcare Foundation are grateful to San Bernardino County and Arrowhead Regional for their partnership and support as we build a world-class medical school dedicated to training future leaders that will give back to underserved areas like San Bernardino County, she said in a statement.

The CalMed medical school is being financed primarily through a $40 million donation from the Prime Healthcare Foundation, which was founded by Dr. Prem Reddy, a cardiologist who is founder, chairman and president of Ontario-based Prime Healthcare Services.

GnanaDev said he is working to secure additional funding from the state of California.

Prime Healthcare owns and operates 44 acute-care hospitals in California, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Alabama and Missouri.

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San Bernardino County awards new Colton medical school a $10 million contract - San Bernardino County Sun