Gosh darn apartment!

So Emily and I applied to an apartment and we are hoping to hear back about whether or not our application was accepted. We were hoping to know today so we could sign a lease today as well because Em is moving home today. Well I called the guy and he said that he would not know till tonight, but he was leaving his office soon because he was going out of town for the weekend; meaning we will not know till Monday, and then we will both be working and need to try and figure out when we can both go sign a lease... AHHH such a head ache! I will deal with signing a lease next week but I just want to know if we got it or not.

Also I am done with finals, so that is good I guess.

The end is near.

So the year is wrapping up and soon it will be time to move into my summer housing; that is going to be a TON of work with the mess I have made of my room in Cretin this year... there are holes galore in the walls, and all of the original furniture is missing... yeah... that day is going to suck. Emily and I went and looked at a few apartments today, most of them nice, each with their own charms and each with their draw backs. One of them we need to decide about almost this minute because another young person is also interested in it and if they leap on it then we will have missed our chance, but we need to decide if we even want to leap in the first place. I think this process has caused me more stress today than I have had all semester up till now combined... I just want to pick one and get it over with.

Our [my] only concern with getting an apartment is the "proof" of employment that these places want you to have... I can prove that I work, but that does not mean it is going to show me making a whole heck of a lot; I just hope they understand that we are paying for the apartment with student loans and not our nearly non-existent income.

6 days till the "start" of summer, 2 tests till I am done with classes, 25 residents till I am done being an RA, 96 days till my wedding, 1 big headache till we find an apartment.

Really...? part 2

Bulletin update

For faculty, staff and students

Allina, St. Thomas boards authorize feasibility study of new medical school

The executive committee of Allina Hospitals & Clinics and the Board of Trustees of the University of St. Thomas have authorized the two institutions to study the feasibility of creating a new medical school to train primary care physicians for Minnesota.

Authorization to proceed with the feasibility study came this morning at St. Thomas and on Wednesday at Allina.

“Our board realized that, while complex, this could be an extraordinary opportunity to forge a bold and innovative new model of medical education,” said Dick Pettingill, president and chief executive officer of Allina. “Few health care leaders dispute that there is a looming physician shortage, and Allina and St. Thomas are uniquely positioned to address this dire need.”

“St. Thomas has always been a leader in developing ground-breaking programs to meet the needs of our students and our communities,” said the Rev. Dennis Dease, president of St. Thomas. “Our board understands the need for more primary care physicians to serve Minnesota and has authorized this study to better understand whether St. Thomas can play a meaningful role in addressing it.”

Penny Wheeler, M.D., Allina’s chief clinical officer, said the vision for a new medical school is to complement – and not compete with – existing programs at the University of Minnesota and Mayo Health System.

“We have exceptional programs in Minnesota that emphasize research and specialty care. We’re not envisioning trying to replicate that expertise but, rather, to build a new educational model that emphasizes clinical practice,” said Wheeler.

The number of medical school students in Minnesota has remained steady for the past decade. Only about half of medical school graduates establish practices in the state.

Shortages in primary care are particularly acute. From 2000 to 2004 the number of primary care physicians in Minnesota grew by only 20, while the supply of other specialty care physicians rose by 129. Currently, Minnesota graduates cannot fill the existing primary care residency slots in the Twin Cities. Two-thirds of primary care residents in the Twin Cities are from other states, and that is why many do not stay in Minnesota to practice.

Wheeler says a new model of medical school could help address this problem through both its selection process and creating financial or other incentives to practice in Minnesota.

“We’d envision focusing on admitting students with a close connection to Minnesota – those who want to stay here and serve this community,” she said. While we would recruit the best and brightest, we also would seek to admit students who have a strong commitment to primary care practice in this state. Selection, combined with other incentives, could dramatically increase the number of students staying to practice in Minnesota.”

The feasibility study is expected to take three to four months. It will analyze key issues such as the market need, finances, governance, staging, facility needs and potential philanthropic and community support for a new medical school. When the study is completed, it will be shared with the respective boards at Allina and St. Thomas. At that time, next steps will be identified.

Allina, a not-for-profit system, owns and operates 11 hospitals, 65 clinics, hospice services, pharmacies and emergency medical transportation services in Minnesota and western Wisconsin, with more than 2.5 million patient visits a year. For more information, see www.allina.com.

Just ask yourself... Really?

Bulletin update

For faculty, staff and students

Discussions under way regarding feasibility of medical school

From Father Dennis Dease, president

I want to bring to the attention of the St. Thomas community an evolving discussion between Allina Hospitals & Clinics and the University of St. Thomas about the feasibility of collaborating in the creation of a new medical school to educate and train primary care physicians for Minnesota.

Allina and St. Thomas have been discussing for several months the challenges facing the health care industry, including the looming physician workforce shortage. Those discussions ultimately converged around the concept of a new model for a medical school, and Allina is interested in further exploring a partnership with St. Thomas.

I will discuss this issue at the annual meeting of the St. Thomas faculty at noon tomorrow (Tuesday) in O’Shaughnessy Educational Center auditorium.

On Thursday, the Board of Trustees at St. Thomas will have its first discussion regarding these issues and will decide whether to authorize a feasibility study with Allina. The executive committee of the Allina board also will discuss a feasibility study at its meeting on Wednesday.

Allina, one of the region’s largest and most-respected health care providers, believes the medical schools at the University of Minnesota and Mayo Clinic are not producing enough primary care physicians to meet the growing demand. Allina also believes the situation will grow more acute because of population growth in this region and the increasing number of retirees who will need health care in the years ahead.

A St. Thomas-Allina collaboration in the establishment of a new medical school would be unique in Minnesota and could be similar in some respects to the medical school partnership between Cleveland Clinics and Case Western Reserve University.

The school would be small, with up to 40 students in the first year’s class, and education and training would occur at Allina facilities, utilizing Allina physicians and other personnel. St. Thomas would not have to construct a new building on one of its campuses or find space in an existing campus building for this project, as we have done for every other new educational program that we have established. The medical school would be another option for St. Thomas pre-med students who want to pursue a medical career.

I want to emphasize here that St. Thomas has no interest in or intention of competing with the University of Minnesota in providing medical education. Allina has been clear, as well, that it greatly values its relationship with the University of Minnesota and that it believes any new medical school would complement – not compete with – what the university offers.

Allina would bring much strength to a collaboration. A not-for-profit system, Allina owns and operates 11 hospitals, 65 clinics, hospice services, pharmacies and emergency medical transportation services in Minnesota and western Wisconsin, with more than 2.5 million patient visits a year. For more information about Allina, see www.alina.com.

Allina is impressed with St. Thomas’ academic strengths in health care education, including basic science and pre-med programs at the undergraduate level and three programs in our Opus College of Business – a Health Care MBA; the Center for Health and Medical Affairs, which offers continuing education programs for medical professionals; and the National Institute of Health Policy, which offers a neutral forum for stakeholder collaborations on health care policy issues.

Many, many questions remain about the project, including what a business plan would look like and how much money might need to be raised. Those are the kinds of questions that would best be answered in a feasibility study that St. Thomas and Allina would conduct jointly.

In the meantime, I welcome your comments.

Mic Check... test test.... test

Yea, and God said to Abraham, "You will kill your son Isaac. 'And Abraham said: "I can't hear you. You'll have to speak into the microphone." And God said, "I'm sorry. Is this better? Check, check, check. Jerry, pull the high end out, I'm getting some hiss back here."

Summer Time, Living... you get it.

In my last post I told you all what I was going to be up to this summer, now its you all get to tell me, and everyone else, what you are going to be up to this summer. Remember nothing is too dull to post.