Why not just expand in Augusta?
No medical school in the United States has a class size of 240 students per year in one location with a single primary teaching hospital in its academic health system, according to Tripp Umbach. MCG’s recent increase from 180 to 190 students in the entering medical school class – and the previously announced increase to 200 in the fall of 2009 – will fully utilize existing facility, faculty, and clinical teaching capacity in Augusta. Expanding to 240 students in Augusta will involve significant physical requirements such as acquiring additional land and constructing a new medical education facility. Furthermore, a class of 240 medical students will require increasingly active partnerships with University Hospital, the Charlie Norwood Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and other hospitals in the Augusta region. Even with dynamic new partnerships, there are not enough physicians or patients in the Augusta region to provide quality training experience to more than 240 students.
