Port Expansion or Medical School?

[thelakelander]

With some pitting JAXPORT against a medical school, the Council's desire for a mobility fee moratorium and a local belief that sprawl growth pays for itself, what should be Jacksonville's top economic priority?  Everyone gets to select a maximum of two options.


Push for JaxPort funds mixed with call for medical school

Can Jacksonville afford to fund both or afford not to?

Supporters of Jacksonville's port who promised Thursday to "Bring the Noise" did just that - appearances at the Landing by a high school marching band and the Jaguars' mascot brought a carnival atmosphere to a rally urging the state and federal governments to swing money the city's way.
The shindig helped Support Our Port, a grassroots group founded over the summer, top its goal of collecting 10,000 letters that will be sent to state and federal representatives touting shipping as one of the First Coast's growth industries.

In contrast, another growth industry is getting almost no attention.

A Jacksonville Community Council Inc. report issued in June recommended the city pursue a medical school, the kind of high-stakes goal that would be similar to deepening Jacksonville's ship channel. Health care is a growth industry mentioned in the same breath as the port as a way to recover from deep job losses and the region's 10.4 percent unemployment rate, and Jacksonville is the second-largest city in the country without a medical school.
So far, though, the idea hasn't caught on.

Although Mayor Alvin Brown says health care and bioscience will be key to future economic growth, he says the city must assess whether it's realistic to seek a medical school just a few years after the state established the University of Central Florida College of Medicine in 2006.

Full article: http://jacksonville.com/news/florida/2011-10-06/story/push-jaxport-funds-mixed-call-medical-school

[Charles Hunter]

Was anyone at the Port rally besides Port employees/families, transportation majors from UNF, and the HS bands and their families?  From the shot I saw on TV, the place did not look packed.

[vicupstate]

Just this week, Greenville SC received the approval required to open the nation's 136th Medical School, which is a collaboration between USC School of Medicine and Greenville Hospital System.  It took two years to get to this point and the first students will start next August.

[thelakelander]

Why do we assume we'll need around $100 million for something like a medical school?  It appears that Greenville's school will utilize space in an existing building and won't cost taxpayers anything.  Now that's a public private partnership!


Greenville Medical School Gets Green Light

GREENVILLE, S.C. --
Medical students who want to go to school, and study in Greenville, now have the means to do it.  The University of South Carolina Medical School's Greenville campus has received its official accreditation, thus the "green light" to start recruiting students, and to open in the fall of 2012.  "This is a huge day," says Greenville Hospital System CEO, Mike Riordan.  "I think you're really going to start seeing students want to stay here in the Upstate."

With a national physician shortage estimated at 60,000 by 2015, Riordan says this school will play a huge role in keeping quality medial care in the Upstate.  "The more we can have resources like this, the more somebody doesn't have to go to Atlanta or Charlotte or somewhere else for care," he says.  "They can stay here."

Instruction will be centered at the school's Health Science Building, where construction is in full swing, and is expected to wrap up next summer.  The 30,000 square foot building features a state of the art design, that is focused on "collaborative and community" learning.  Traditional classrooms will be replaced by group centered learning environments, where students interact with doctors from day one.  "It's to take it from classroom to bedside seamlessly, literally from the day they walk in the door," says Lynn Crespo, Associate Dean of Education.

The school is now accepting applications, and plans to have a class of 50 first year students enrolled by the fall.

http://www2.wspa.com/news/2011/oct/05/greenville-medical-school-gets-green-light-ar-2512556/

GREENVILLE, SC (FOX Carolina) - The Greenville Hospital System announced that its medical school will open in the fall of 2012.

The University of South Carolina School of Medicine-Greenville was awarded preliminary accreditation on Tuesday by the national body that accredits medical schools.

Preliminary accreditation is the first step in a four-year process for the school.

Harris Pastides, USC president, said it was a milestone for health care and education in South Carolina. Pastides said that GHS and USC's longstanding partnership that offers clinical training to medical students and keeping physicians in the state was a factor in the expansion.

The USC School of Medicine expanded its third and fourth years of training to GHS in 1991, and to date, 271 students have completed their training at GHS.

"I'm thrilled to finally say that the USC School of Medicine-Greenville is accepting applications," said founding dean Jerry Youkey. "This program will significantly impact the way healthcare is delivered in our area. We are gratified for the confidence and support that has been provided to us from the citizens of South Carolina, the business community and our legislators."

USCSOM-Greenville will start student and faculty recruitment immediately.

The school expects to accept 50 first-year students next fall, with a goal of 100 students by its fourth-entering class.

Youkey said that they expect to recruit 22 to 24 basic sciences faculty. GHS already has approximately 300 clinical faculty already.

Most classes will take place on the Greenville Memorial Medical Campus, near Greenville Memorial Hospital, in the state-of-the-art Health Sciences Education Building.

USCSOM-Greenville is the 136th medical education program in the country.

"We have an airtight agreement with GHS that this program will not rely on any state funds," said Pastides. "To turn down a proposal to expand medical school education without state funds would not have been a wise decision for the people of our state."

The program is not funded by public dollars, according to Pastides.

http://www.foxcarolina.com/story/15624337/greenville-to-get-usc-med-school-location

[JeffreyS]

I love the Medical school idea but after Florida State wanted theirs here and we sent it to Daytona, good luck.

[thelakelander]

Personally, I wouldn't just rely on the medical for a school.  There are tons of educational opportunities out there that this community will benefit from.  I'd go after any idea that would be viable economically.

[pwhitford]

I firmly believe if you build up the port, they will come ..... and come ... and come ... and come.  Jax offers a truly unique logistical and geographic opportunity for importers and exporters.  Unofficially,  we are no more than 24 hours from 85% of the population of the US because we have so many intermodal transportation opportunities ALREADY AVAILABLE.  We could provide incredible competition for Miami and leave our northern competitors in the dust with the proper modifications.  The Port is, IMHO, the most potent economic engine we have right now, and we should be falling all over ourselves to revive this element of our lost economy.

Panama Canal sets tonnage record

Canal Authority reveals that tonnage passed the 2007 record in fiscal 2011 with 322.1m tonnes handled
Fiscal 2011 has proved to be a record breaking year for the key commerce waterway at the Panama Canal, reaching a new milestone for tonnage handled.
The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) revealed that the port hit a record 322.1m Panama Canal tonnes (PC/UMS) through the 12-month period, which ended on 30 September this year, up 7 per cent year-on-year from 300.8m tonnes, and above the 2007 record of 312.9m tonnes.
"This is an unprecedented achievement during the 97 years of Canal operations which proves once again the capability of Panamanians to operate and manage this important waterway for world commerce," said ACP administrator and chief executive Alberto Alemán Zubieta.
"My recognition and gratitude got to the Panama Canal employees for reaching this important goal," he added.
According to Zubieta, the milestone proves that "the Canal's corporate management model has made it possible to continuously improve the level of service we provide our clients while at the same time increasing benefits to Panama".

[Tacachale]

The concerns the articles raise about the medical school is spot on. The State University System is stretched thin on medical school expansion, after starting 4, plus satellite campuses, since 1999. Even still we're a great market for one and we need to push it. We need a solid plan and some vision to get one going here, and it needs to be downtown. That was one of the strongest parts of Mullaney's plan, and Brown would do well to investigate that.

[simms3]

This vote is EASY:

Port
10 mile streetcar/LRT startup

I would say $100M for a medical school startup is about as wasteful as the $1.8B outer beltway and the mobility fee waiver.  If UF wants to expand here, let them do it and let them get funding from the state and the feds.  Fat chance of any other sort of medical school here, especially one that has a $100M startup!

I have to repeat my thoughts about our healthcare industry in Jacksonville.  WE ARE NOT AS MUCH OF A HUB AS PEOPLE WOULD LIKE TO THINK WE ARE.  Orlando has already surpassed Jacksonville as both a biotech and a healthcare hub.  Tampa has surpassed us as a biotech hub.  Atlanta has Emory and the CDC.  Nashville has Vanderbilt.  Miami has Miami.  Birmingham has UAB-Birmingham Med school, which is huge.  Houston is the world's largest hub.  Rochester is all people think about when they think Mayo (unfortunately they do not think Jacksonville).  Raleigh has all sorts of institutions.  WE DO NOT HAVE A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE OVER ANYONE IN OUR HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY.  We did, but we blew it like we do everything.

We do have a competitive advantage over most places with our port.  We will never compete with Savannah on containerized imports/exports, but our port handles other products very well.  We are also positioned beautifully to be the lead port in Florida and one of the lead ports in the country (of course on the East Coast as well).  This is something basically no other city can lay claim to or strive for.

Also, justifying the streetcar/LRT is easy.  Look at Charlotte and Austin.  Would we like to have the same successes?  If the answer is yes, their most defining difference aside from better overall leadership is progressive investment in public transit.  They also invest heavily in their most defining industies: Tech for Austin and Banking/RE for Charlotte.  Ours is obviously the port, so that's where we need to throw money.

[ProjectMaximus]

Was anyone at the Port rally besides Port employees/families, transportation majors from UNF, and the HS bands and their families?  From the shot I saw on TV, the place did not look packed.

I was there, entirely by accident. And no it was not packed. Lots of people but hardly packed.

[Tacachale]

I disagree with simms on the medical school. In spite of everything Jacksonville remains a healthcare hub. Other than the Miami area, no other city in the state has the constellation of assets we have. Tampa-St. Pete and Orlando have not "surpassed" us, and Orlando only got to the level it's since the UCF medical school was established. We are conceivably the most significant health care hub between Miami and Atlanta - and all this without a medical school.

Additionally, Jacksonville is the country's second largest metro area without a med school, so it's a perfect market for one even without our very formidable existing assets. Regardless of how you personally think we stack up compared to other areas, this is a worthwhile economic development opportunity.

The biggest holdup on a medical school in Jacksonville is the one that has the least to do with the city itself - the state university system has simply established 4 medical schools in the last 12 years, and is stretched pretty thin on the enterprise. This is why we need a decisive vision and plan.

[Keith-N-Jax]

Port and Street car, now get it done!!!!

[Tacachale]

I'm a bit confused about the street car. Wasn't it supposed to be paid for by the mobility fee? If so how else would we be raising 100 million for it?

[thelakelander]

Good question.  The mobility plan and fee is intended to provide a bulk of cash for sidewalks, multiuse paths, pedestrian overpasses, roadway capacity projects, commuter rail and streetcars over the next twenty years.  If there is no mobility fee, what is the plan to fund multimodal transportation improvements in Jacksonville over the next decade?  Considering we'll have to invest in these types of things to compete economically in the future, what is the alternative plan?

[simms3]

Tacachale,

I looked at every ranked medical research university in the country (I know primary care is also ranked, but I did not look at that because research is where it is at).  Nearly 100 are ranked, including 3 in FL.  UF and Miami were tied at 45 and USF came in at 66.  UF has a presence here, so we should foster and nurture that, but there is no way we get anything else that will make an economic justification for why we should invest in it.

Over 95% of the ranked medical schools are also major research universities.  The top 25 are the usual candidates who also rank highly in most other categories, as well, and fall in lattitude Atlanta and up (and CA).  The 25-50 are all also great programs that wax and wane within that ranking level.  50-100 is a pretty diverse mix.  NYC, LA, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, Baltimore, and the Triangle each have at least 2 top-50 med schools (NYC has 6).  Of the ranked programs, most have been around for quite some time and have maintained their rankins for decades.  There are few, if any, newcomers to the programs.  Again, further reasoning to just stick with what we have: a presence with UF at Shands.

Now on biomedical engineering, there are only 10 officially ranked schools: 1 - 10 are Johns Hopkins, Georgia Tech, UCSD, Duke, Washington (Seattle), MIT, Penn, BU, Rice, and Stanford.  These are the same cities that also all have med programs that fall within the top 25, often top 10.  The largest biotech clusters are around Seattle, the entire state of CA, Boston and the entire NE/Mid-Atlantic region, Atlanta, Minneapolis-Milwaukee-Chicago, and Houston.  Florida has picked up quite a bit of share, but nothing in Jacksonville.  Between Lake Nona/UCF in Orlando, Scripps and UM in S FL, and USF down through Sarasota, Jacksonville is kind of off the radar.

What I'm trying to say in a nutshell is that along with anything, industries like clusters for economies of scale and collaboration.  We are a logistics hub and it makes sense for companies, mainly in logistics and industry, to look here.  It does not make sense for "new medical schools" and biotech companies to look here, and it would take a huge incentive for them to do so.  Our hospitals on average are probably better than most other cities, and they are certainly quite large on average, but we don't have any major name hospitals aside from a branch of the Mayo Clinic.  Just having decent hospitals and a branch of a major does not make for a healthcare hub.  Read the medical journals for yourself; not a lot of articles begin with "Doctors in Jacksonville...".