Dr. Rakesh Gupta was beside himself with unbridled excitement.
He looks forward to the fall of 2026, when Methodist University is scheduled to welcome its first medical school class to the Raleigh Road campus, and all the more forward to 2030, when an estimated 80 new physicians and health care providers will graduate.
“I look to the day when students of the first class walk in with their white coats,” Gupta, 67, chairman of the Methodist University board of trustees, was saying Monday as the university joined with Cape Fear Valley Health to announce the establishment of a medical school that “will truly put us on the map. It’s an honor to witness the birth of a medical school in Fayetteville.”
A standing-room-only audience of nearly 100 representing the university, the health care system and community leaders were on hand for the announcement at the McLean Health Sciences Building, where the school offers programs in physician assistant studies, nursing, occupational therapy, physical therapy, public health and community health education, among other health care degrees.
“This is a historic day,” said Stanley T. Wearden, the 69-year-old university president. “The medical school will serve the rural and underserved populations. There is a tremendous need. While we have many excellent health care professionals in this community, we nonetheless have a shortage, which is a microcosm of a national shortage. We are perfectly located to meet this need. We’ll improve the quality of health care. We’re the right partner. This gives us the opportunity to expand. It will change the identity of Methodist University in many ways.”
The medical school, Wearden said, will be housed in the new $33 million, five-story Center for Medical Education & Neuroscience Institute at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center that opened Jan. 13 at Owen and Melrose drives. The university will lease space from Cape Fear Valley Health.
“We could not do this without the financial support of Cape Fear Valley,” Wearden said.
The economic impact to the community, according to the university and attributed to Walden Economic Consulting, will be $73 million in annual regional income, government tax income of $9.6 million and 837 new jobs. A study commissioned by the health system, Wearden said, found that the medical school could generate more than $750 million in economic impact to the community in the school’s first 10 years.
The Methodist University medical school will complement the health system’s partnership with Campbell University’s Jerry M. Wallace School of Osteopathic Medicine that launched its postgraduate residency program in 2017. Today, there on 274 residents from Campbell University at the health system and 130 medical students in training, Dr. Don Maharty said in January. Maharty is vice president for medical education at Cape Fear Valley Health.
Your support for CityView helps ensure a more informed community. Donate today.
‘Solving our doctor deserts’
“This will go a long way,” said Mike Nagowski, the 57-year-old chief executive officer of Cape Fear Valley Health, “in solving our doctor deserts.”
A shortage of local and regional physicians, he said, is a reason the health system’s emergency rooms are overwhelmed with patients, and notably in this community.
“We couldn’t be more proud to partner with such a great organization,” Nagowski said about Methodist University, which was founded in 1956. “This integration is real and will continue to grow. Our board of trustees is always pushing our academic pursuits. We promise we are going to deliver on medical care.”
The final hurdle, according to Nagowski and the university, is approval by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education and the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges. The Liaison Committee on Medical Education is an accrediting body for educational programs at schools of medicine in the United States and Canada.
Epilogue
Otherwise, this is a big deal not only for Methodist University and Cape Fear Valley Health but for health care to come in this community and southeastern North Carolina.
“To be called a doctor,” said Rakesh Gupta, a retired gastroenterologist, chief of medicine from 1996 to 1998 at the medical center and a past member of the health system’s board of trustees. “To hold the hand of a patient. To look a family member in the eye. And for that at Methodist University. I believe we are joined by destiny. I look to the day when students of the first class walk in with their white coats.”
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.
