Officials are pondering a plan that would bring third- and fourth-year medical students from the USC School of Medicine to study in Florence beginning in 2014.

Officials from Francis Marion University, McLeod Regional Medical Center and the Carolinas Hospital System are pondering a plan that would bring third- and fourth-year medical students from the University of South Carolina School of Medicine to study in Florence beginning in 2014.

A meeting last week with an outside consultant was designed to give the participants a financial framework for the plan. The institutions involved would need to hire additional teaching and supervisory staff. The students 25 to begin with, with as many as 60 at some later date would work and study at Florence-area hospitals their last two years of medical school at USC.

The idea of opening a med school practicum in Florence stems from the recent decision to create a branch of the USC Med School in Greenville. The USC School of Medicine-Greenville is scheduled to enroll its first class of students this fall. When those students begin their third year in the new program, they will displace the nearly 60 USC students who currently complete their third and fourth years of study in Greenville.

Because the new Greenville school represents an expansion of the USC School of Medicines enrollment, the school will need to find a new place for those students.

Local officials here say Florence is a natural choice. The Pee Dee area is about to become the only area of the state without a med school (the state will have medical schools in Columbia and Charleston, as well as the new school in Greenville), and Florence already has extensive medical facilities.

It would be a great fit, said Dr. Eddie Floyd, a local cardiologist and philanthropist who is shepherding the plan. Were all working together on this and it will really enhance what we have to offer, both as a city and a medical community.

MCT

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USC medical school student could work in Florence