All the dollars count when you are bringing a medical school to this community.
That’s the plan for the Methodist University Cape Fear Valley Health School of Medicine, pending approval from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, which is scheduled to welcome its first class of students in the fall of 2026 to the Cape Fear Valley Medical Center campus.
Construction cost for the five-story, 127,476-square-foot, 200-room building will be paid for by the Cape Fear Health System, which is another reason CEO Mike Nagowski is trumpeting a $1.5 million grant from the Charlotte-based The Duke Endowment.
“This grant from The Duke Endowment is a vital investment in the future of health care for our region,” Nagowski said in a news release. “It will allow us to build the foundation needed to educate and train the next generation of physicians right here in our community, strengthening our ability to care for those we serve today and for years to come.”
Methodist University President Stanley Wearden and Dr. Rakesh Gupta, chair of the university’s board of trustees, joined with Nagowski in announcing plans for the school on Feb. 27, 2023, at the McLean Health Sciences Building on the university campus.
Cape Fear Valley Health, Nagowski says, is expected to cost $65 million to build, plus another $60 million to furnish and equip the school and cover other startup costs. The university, according to a published report, will lease the building over the ensuing 20 years.
The medical school, Nagowski says, will play a significant role in reducing what he has described as a “doctor desert” in the Cape Fear Region to include Bladen, Columbus, Cumberland, Harnett, Hoke, Robeson, Sampson and Scotland counties.
Wearden has described the partnership as a “historic occasion” for the university, the health system and health care in the community, and extending into the region.
‘We are deeply grateful’
Dr. Hershey Bell was named founding dean and chief academic officer in May of 2023.
Bell, too, is celebrating The Duke Endowment grant, which is from a private foundation established in 1924 by industrialist and philanthropist James B. Duke. The grant will help fund critical early infrastructure, according to the release, and startup operational costs for the medical school.
“We are deeply grateful to The Duke Endowment for their generous $1.5 million gift, which will play a pivotal role in establishing the Methodist University Cape Fear Valley Health School of Medicine,” Bell said in the release. “This support will enhance health care access and foster workforce development in southeastern North Carolina, empowering us to train the next generation of physicians dedicated to serving our community’s diverse needs.”
Bell already has his Methodist University Cape Fear Valley School of Medicine leadership team in place, and it continues to grow.
“We have also hired others into key leadership roles in admissions, clinical education and assessment,” Bell said Tuesday. “All told, we have hired approximately 40 faculty and staff for the medical school, and we plan to hire approximately 70 total by the time classes would begin next July, pending approval from the LCME.”
Also, Bell said more than 200 physicians with privileges at Cape Fear Valley Health have received faculty appointments.
“We believe we have prepared as best we can,” Bell said. “The decision on accreditation rests with the LCME board and we will hear from them in mid-October.”
“Very soon to be a reality’
Dr. Rakesh Gupta is a retired gastroenterologist and the vision behind the medical school.
“The medical school journey is on track and racing ahead,” Gupta said Monday. “The school building on Village Drive is on schedule and moving forward rapidly. It is an incredible sight driving on Village Drive coming towards the hospital emergency room and then proceeding west. I had the opportunity to get up to the seventh floor Valley Pavilion at the hospital and look at it from the window up top, and it is an incredible view.”
Gupta, who was chief of medicine from 1996 to 1998 at the medical center, says the buzz in the community is that the medical school will be transformational for health care.
“A dream at one time and very soon to be a reality,” Gupta said. “As Mr. Nagowski, the hospital CEO likes to say, ‘If it were easy, everyone would be building a medical school.’”
Gupta says the ensuing hurdle is accreditation from the LCME, which represents the Association of American Medical and the American Medical Association..
“We will then have secured our path to establishing the creation of our nation’s newest medical school to open its doors in 2026,” he said. “We have been raising funds for the school and the gift from The Duke Endowment is very welcome and much appreciated. The Duke Endowment focuses on North and South Carolina, and especially as it relates to child and family well-being, health care and higher education with emphasis on improving access.
“The university faculty and the Provost Suzanne Blum Malley, President Wearden and the founding dean, Dr. Hershey Bell, could not be more excited.
“I am so very grateful that this is happening right here in Fayetteville,” Gupta said. “I am very happy that I have a small role to play in this endeavor. I am truly looking forward to young students that will be future physicians wearing white coats entering the halls of this wonderful center for medical education.”
Epilogue
Dr. Rakesh Gupta has seen a bird’s-eye view of this university medical school from the seventh floor of the medical center’s Valley Pavilion.
But more so he sees a medical school’s twin towers that will change the health care landscape in this community and throughout the Cape Fear Region.
“This is only likely the beginning of a new era and a new day wherein we will train students that think holistically and pursue education that will change the nature of health outcomes for the better in this region and beyond,” Gupta said. “To quote Dr. Abraham Verghese, who spoke at a recent commencement at Harvard, ‘The power of human touch is more than any technology,’ and this will ring true with every student to help them understand what it means to be a doctor and why it is life-changing.”
The Methodist University Cape Fear Valley Health School of Medicine isn’t here yet, but the Methodist University Cape Fear Valley Health School of Medicine is getting closer to becoming a reality every day.
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.
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