White hard hats donned and shining silver ceremonial shovels in hand, officials from Methodist University, Cape Fear Valley Health and the Cumberland County Board of Commissioners marked on Tuesday the official start of construction on the Methodist University Cape Fear Valley Health School of Medicine.
“Today, we’re celebrating the groundbreaking of the nation’s newest medical school and it’s not just any medical school, it’s our medical school,” said Dr. Hershey Bell, the founding dean of the College of Medicine at Methodist University, to the crowd gathered to mark the day. “Fayetteville’s medical school. Cumberland County’s medical school. The entire southeast North Carolina region’s medical school.”
It is the latest mark of progress for Fayetteville’s first medical school, which is set to open its doors to an inaugural cohort of 80 students in 2026.
A community-driven medical school
The university plans to host its first community advisory board meeting later this fall. The community advisory board will advise medical school leadership on “the most pressing issues” facing the county and other areas to “tangibly impact the quality of health and the quality of life” of residents, said Bell. Dr. Kimberly Vess, senior associate dean for student experience of the Methodist University College of Medicine will head the council and 10 to 20 people from sectors across Cumberland and neighboring counties, including business, education and faith leaders, will serve on it.
In Cumberland County, those pressing issues could range from child mortality, which is 1.5 times greater than the national average, to diabetes, for which the county sees over 2% more adults diagnosed with than the state. Generally, Cumberland County residents experienced more poor physical and mental health days than the state average in 2021, according to County Health Ranking & Roadmaps data.
An issue the medical school is trying to solve directly: the county’s lack of health care providers. Cumberland County had one primary care physician per 1,420 people in 2021, according to County Health Rankings data. The same data shows that there is only one mental health providers to every 230 county residents.
While not all medical school graduates will train in these practices, Methodist University is trying to retain them in the area. Sixty-seven percent of physicians who complete medical school and residency in North Carolina remained in the state to practice, according to research from the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research out of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Methodist University has set up 300 residency and fellowship positions for students who want to train in the region, Bell told CityView, in hopes that they stay after residency as well.
“They won’t be just any medical school students; they will be our future neighbors and physicians,” said Bell at the ceremony.
Building and operations
Construction costs for the 120,000-square-foot building that will house the medical school is projected at $67.6 million, according to meeting minutes from the July Cape Fear Valley Health Board of Trustees Executive Committee meeting.
Once built, Methodist University will rent a 78,000-square-foot space to house its medical school from Cape Fear Valley Health. Rent will be over $3 million a year.
In total, Cape Fear Valley Health CEO Michael Nagowski told CityView in March that $120 million is needed to build, furnish and equip the medical school building on the Cape Fear Valley Health campus along Village Drive. That equipment includes a virtual anatomy laboratory and a fully equipped standardized patient lab. Annual operation expenses are estimated to be $60 million.
While tuition will help cover some of those yearly operating costs, Methodist University will set tuition slightly lower than $65,000 a year, the median tuition for a U.S. private medical school in 2023. The university stated it would raise scholarship funds to help students pay for medical school in an informational packet provided at the ceremony.
Funding for the medical school comes from several places, including awards, donations and bonds. Norwood Bryan Jr., long-time donor to Methodist University and former member of the N.C. House of Representatives, gifted $1 million to the medical school in October 2023. The Golden LEAF Foundation, established to administer tobacco settlement money in North Carolina’s “economically distressed communities,” awarded the school $8 million in August. The County Board of Commissioners approved up to $40 million in tax-exempt bonds for constructing the medical school that same month.
The university and Cape Fear Valley Health Foundation plan to raise a total of $20 million from philanthropic sources to support the medical school’s startup costs.
“We want everybody to own this medical school,” Dr. Franklin Clark III, chairperson of the school’s board, told CityView. “We want it to be theirs. Even if you’re just giving 10, 20 bucks, that makes it yours.”
Developing the program
While construction begins and as funding continues to come in, the medical school is currently undergoing accreditation from the Liaison Commission on Medical Education. Methodist University has applicant status with LCME, the initial accreditation step with the body. The university expects to move to the second step, candidate status, by mid-October. Until the school’s accreditation is received, Methodist University has stated it cannot share details on the program and application requirements.
While unable to share more about the program with CityView, Bell said the school has plans to develop pipeline programs to recruit students. These programs would start as early as middle school, Bell said.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that there were 230 mental health providers to every county resident. There is one mental health provider to every 230 residents. This article has been updated with the correct information. CityView apologizes for this error.
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 CityView News Fund.
230 mental health providers for every county resident ? That doesn’t make sense