The building’s final beam is set in place, staff and faculty are being hired, and funding is flowing in: the Methodist University Cape Fear Valley Health School of Medicine is coming together.
In just a little over a year, the first class of medical students will walk through its doors.
“This [school] will be truly transformative,” Stanley Wearden, Methodist University president, said at the medical school’s topping off ceremony on April 15. “I think we’re beginning to see that transformation happen already. It’ll be transformative for our institutions. But most importantly, there will be that transformation in health care outcomes in this region, jobs in this region, economic impact in this region. It is going to be a difference-maker.”
A few more details need to be sorted before the medical school welcomes its first class of 64 students in July 2026. Most pressing is getting accredited by the Liaison Commission on Medical Education, the accrediting organization for medical schools providing MD degrees. The LCME has a final site visit at the end of May. Dr. Hershey Bell, the founding dean of the College of Medicine at Methodist University, told CityView he expects to get a congratulatory call from the commission saying the school is accredited in October.
Methodist University is also still hiring faculty and staff. Bell is one of 31 people already on staff, and he said the medical school will have 70 employees by the time students arrive. The total staff count will come out to 100 people by 2028, he said.
The home of Fayetteville’s future doctors
Construction of the 127,476-square-foot building along Village Drive that will house the medical school began in September 2024. Over 320 craftworkers have put in 29,000 hours of work to build the steel structure and begin constructing the exterior of the V-shaped building.
Cullen Pitts, principal with McMillian Pazdan Smith Architecture, the firm that designed the building, told the ceremony’s crowd that the design was intentional. One side faces Village Drive, connecting the school to the community, and the other faces Cape Fear Valley Medical Center, connecting it to the health system.
Once completed, the building will be 5 floors with 200 rooms, housing a virtual anatomy laboratory and a fully equipped standardized patient lab. Cape Fear Valley Health CEO Michael Nagowski told CityView in March 2024 that the building will cost $120 million to build, furnish and equip. An additional $60 million will be needed per year for operations.
The plan is to raise $30 million from philanthropic sources to support the medical school’s startup costs, said Franklin Clark III, chair of Methodist University Cape Fear Valley Health School of Medicine Inc. He told those attending the ceremony that the group has already raised $18 million from donors like the Golden LEAF Foundation, local philanthropists Ralph and Linda Huff, and Norwood Bryan Jr., a long-time donor to Methodist University and former representative in the N.C. House.
The Cumberland County Government has also approved up to $40 million in tax-exempt bonds for the construction of the medical school.
Tackling doctor deserts
Bell told the crowd that the medical school will be equity-focused, socially accountable and engaged with the community — principles developed from the feedback of almost 100 residents during the creation of the School of Medicine’s strategic plan.
“What that means is we don’t simply exist in this community. We care for and actively participate in the community,” Bell said in his ceremony remarks. “We welcome the input of the community in helping us frame our agenda, both in terms of service to the community and the curriculum that our students will learn from to ensure that everyone receives the same excellent education and the same access to health care, despite any barriers that stand in their way.”
Access to health care is the primary issue the medical school hopes to address, particularly in southeastern North Carolina. The U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration, a federal agency under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, defines almost all counties in the region as having a shortage of primary care and mental health providers. Many counties also have low access to maternal care, according to the March of Dimes nonprofit organization.
The Rural Health Information Hub, a federal data source also under HHS, classifies Cumberland County as a mental health professional shortage area. The county also has fewer primary care physicians. On average, a primary care physician in Cumberland County serves 90 more patients than the national average, which is 1,330 people served per physician, according to County Health Rankings and Roadmaps.
For Bell, the medical school is the first step in bringing future mental health, primary care and other specialty physicians to the region. The next is keeping them here.
According to research from the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at UNC-Chapel Hill, 67% of physicians who complete medical school and residency in North Carolina remain in the state to practice. It’s why the medical school is partnered with Cape Fear Valley Health to offer one of the health system’s 350 residency and fellowship positions to any medical student who wishes to practice in the region.
The Cumberland County Board of Commissioners also helped establish a million-dollar endowment for county residents wishing to attend the medical school and who commit to working in the county after being licensed.
“This is not about what’s going to happen today or, quite honestly, tomorrow,” Nagowski told CityView. “It’s about what happens five, 10, 15, 20, years from now when we’re going to look back and say, ‘All these doctors are here because of the medical school.’”
Even with the medical school still under construction, Bell told CityView that physicians are coming to work for Cape Fear Valley Health because they want to be part of the school.
Physicians aren’t the only ones Bell said the medical school will bring to Cumberland County and the state’s southeast region. He said industry follows health care, with companies wanting to move into places with well-established research institutions like medical schools and large health systems.
“That’s what happened with Research Triangle Park,” Bell said. “And our expectation is the same thing is going to happen in our region. It may take five years, 10 years, 20 years, but you’ll see it happen.”
CityView Reporter Morgan Casey is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms. Morgan’s reporting focuses on health care issues in and around Cumberland County and can be supported through the News Foundation of Greater Fayetteville.