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College building to be named Butler-Haney Hall
Yakima Herald-Republic , PUBLISHED ON Monday, June 23, 2008 AT 12:06AM
The new building housing the College of Osteopathic Medicine in Terrace Heights has been named Butler-Haney Hall in honor of two major benefactors of Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences.
Dr. Lloyd Butler and his wife, Gloria, and Bob and Charlotte Haney gave the university a "substantial multimillion-dollar" pledge to get the ambitious plan off the ground, said Dr. Stan Flemming, president of the university.
A ceremony was held Monday to mark the occasion. Butler, a retired Sunnyside physician, is chairman of the board of the university. Haney, who owned a chain of car washes in the Seattle area, is Butler's brother-in-law. The Haneys live part of the year in Yakima.
"The Butlers and Haneys have really spearheaded the way for the rest of the contributors," Flemming said.
The new sign will be installed in the next two weeks. The $13 million building will be dedicated July 23. Classes begin Aug. 4.
PUBLISHED ON Saturday, May 17, 2008 AT 12:05AM
Completion of new osteopathic college has been a long journey
by Leah Beth Ward
Yakima Herald-Republic
Too many doctors lack the kind of bedside manner that most patients want, according to Dr. Stan Flemming, president of Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences.
So when the first class of students arrives this summer at the new College of Osteopathic Medicine in Terrace Heights, part of the training will take place in a simulated medical clinic that looks every bit as real as your doctor's office, from the sliding glass window at the reception counter to the hand wipes in the exam rooms.
Students will interact with live models acting as patients, and their every move and word will be recorded with digital audio and video for immediate feedback.
"This is very unusual for first-year medical students," Flemming said. "But we want to teach them from the start to observe, listen and interact with their patients. That's what patients want."
Flemming is almost giddy as he guides a tour through the nearly completed college, a $20 million, 47,000-square-foot, two-story brick and limestone building with a towering "Great Hall" at the south end that will be available for community events.
Starting with orientation Aug. 4, the inaugural class of students will begin a four-year journey of learning that will offer them the latest in teaching technology in the most modern of medical education settings.
The 75 students and 25 faculty members will also bring the neighborhood of Terrace Heights an economic punch with their demand for retail goods and services, such as late-night pizzas before a big exam.
For now, retail services are limited. But Terrace Heights Development, an arm of Columbia Basin Railroad, which donated $7 million toward the medical college, plans to announce soon a sizable mixed-use development near the college campus to include housing, restaurants, banks, shopping, an office park and additional medical facilities.
"We hope to create more of a destination to Terrace Heights," said Kim Johnson Rath, spokeswoman for Terrace Heights Development. She said the company isn't ready to release details yet.
County planners don't know of any housing projects in the works in Terrace Heights, but Pat Strosahl of United Builders said every builder in the county is eyeing the site, particularly for apartments.
"I think all of us are thinking rental right now because of the mortgage crisis and you can bet that people are closely following the plans of the college and how that might affect their own opportunities," Strosahl said.
The college at one time planned its own student housing, but that development is on hold.
Flemming said students and faculty have found an adequate supply of housing in the Upper Valley. But in two years, projections show demand will outpace supply, he said.
"By the time we meet the third class," he said, "Yakima will be challenged."
All the faculty members have purchased homes. Some parents have invested in single-family residences for their doctor-to-be children. Annual tuition at the private college is $30,000 compared with about $17,400 at the University of Washington, which receives state funds.
Those students are soon to go through one of the most anticipated medical school initiation rituals: their first encounter with human cadavers. The college has a special climate-controlled anatomy lab for 24 preserved bodies that will keep for a year under cool conditions. The air pressure inside the cadaver room is kept high to keep odors from escaping.
Flemming, who has taught at the University of Washington School of Medicine, predicts a few will faint at first sight.
"Somebody always goes down," he said.
A more distinguishing feature of the college will be its osteopathic manipulation classroom. Osteopathic medicine is nearly identical to traditional medical education with the exception of manipulation.
Osteopathic physicians, who have D.O. (doctor of osteopathy) after their names, receive the same medical board certification as M.D.s, and these days practice alongside M.D.s in hospitals and clinics. They can prescribe drugs, for example, and receive post-doctoral training to practice surgery and other specialties.
But while the differences between the two types of medical education have blurred, only osteopathic physicians are trained in the signature therapy of using the hands to diagnose, treat and prevent illness or injury. Manipulative techniques include moving muscles and joints with stretching, gentle pressure and resistance.
In the college's manipulation classroom, students will be able to connect electronically to the anatomy lab -- home of the cadavers -- to watch how the body responds to their technique.
Absent from the classrooms will be chalk and other boards for lectures. Instead, there will be digital "smart boards." As professors write on the boards with digital pens, the notes will be transferred to students' laptops, which are issued with enrollment.
Flemming said anything less than the most advanced technology would hamper the students' learning because they have grown up with all things digital.
"I struggle just to learn the technology," he said, "but if we didn't do it, the students would be totally lost."
Another feature of the building deliberately planned is the size of faculty offices: they are all the same. Flemming said the board wanted to avoid the kind of competition for status that can preoccupy even the highest-level professionals.
"Faculty can get so wrapped around size of office space and view that we decided just to keep them all equal," Flemming said.
That means one window per office.
* Leah Beth Ward can be reached at 577-7626 or lward@yakimaherald.com.
PUBLISHED ON Thursday, May 15, 2008 AT 01:05PM
Commissioners vote to rename part of South 33rd Street
Yakima Herald-Republic
The Yakima County Commissioners on Tuesday voted to rename a section of South 33rd Street in honor of Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences. The newly named University Parkway will stretch from Terrace Heights Drive to State Route 24. The change will take effect in 30 days. Some property owners along the route had argued against the change at an earlier public hearing. But the commissioners were unanimous in their support of the change.
Pierce College Alumnus Wins National Award
December 19, 2007
Pierce College alumnus Dr. Stan Flemming has been awarded the prestigious 2008 Outstanding Alumni Award from the American Association of Community Colleges.
Flemming (and four other winners) will be honored at a gala reception in Philadelphia in April. More than 900 guests are expected to attend.
Criteria for selection included: notable achievements in their chosen career field, recognition at a national level, inspirational impact, and specific philanthropic or public service activity that supports the community or college.
Flemming was nominated for the award by Pierce College Chancellor Michele Johnson.
“Stan is a testament to the fact that community colleges are wonderful places to start,” she said. “An individual can begin here and go on to do great things. It can be the beginning of something very exciting and a way of creating opportunities. Stan is an inspirational example of those opportunities.”
Flemming’s involvement at Pierce has been ongoing since he earned his Associate’s Degree in 1973. He has served as graduation speaker, emcee for the Distinguished Alumni banquets, a regular donor, and an advocate to the Legislature. He was awarded the college’s highest award, Distinguished Alumnus, in 1997.
Flemming, who has served two combat tours of duty and is now the commanding general of the Northwest Army Reserve Medical Region and Eighth Medical Brigade, is now the president and chief executive officer of the Yakima-based Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences, a new medical school specializing in disease prevention training for rural primary care physicians.
Listed below is a sampling of Flemming’s other major accomplishments:
• First Native American to serve in the state House of Representatives (1992-1995));
• Founding mayor of University Place (1995-1996) and mayor pro-tem since 2005.
• Chairman of the Board of Trustees at The Evergreen State College, Olympia.
• Rainier Communications Commission president, 1997-2003, and vice president since 2005.
Flemming has also won numerous awards, including the Pierce County Chamber of Commerce’s Howard O. Scott Citizen of the Year Award (1994), the Washington National Guard Association Recognition Award (1994), the Western University of Health Science Distinguished Alumnus Award (1994), Washington State Osteopathic Medical Association Physician of the Year (1993), and the Pacific Hospital of Long Beach, Calif., Outstanding Teacher Award (1988).
(c) 1996 - 2007 Pierce College District 11, Lakewood & Puyallup, Washington USA. This page last updated August 9, 2007.
March 25, 2008
Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences has its first class of students
Posted: March 21, 2008 05:49 PM PDT
Updated: March 24, 2008 09:21 AM PDT
Terrace Heights, WA - The new medical school in Terrace Heights has filled out its first ever class.
Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences admitted the last student in its first class yesterday.
Seventy-five students will begin attending the osteopathic medical school on August 4th.
University President Dr. Stan Flemming says despite a late start, applications poured in.
"Once the university received its accreditation last August, within hours of that notification going out, we received 400 applications right off the top," says Dr. Flemming.
The school received more than 1,900 applications overall.
Andrew Peters of Homer, Alaska was one of the 75 to get in and he stopped in Yakima this afternoon to check out all the progress on construction for the medical school's building.
"In talking to other students online, everyone seems really excited about coming to Yakima," says Andrew Peters, "We really like the atmosphere. The people are really supportive."
The admissions office says 70% of the first class is from the Pacific Northwest, 55% are women and eight students are from Eastern Washington.
Brigadier General, physician named new President of Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences
Northwest physician executive and former state legislator will lead new medical school in Yakima November 8, 2007
YAKIMA, Wash. — A well-known and respected figure throughout the Northwest was announced today as the new president of Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences (PNWU), the first medical school to be built in the Pacific Northwest in more than 60 years.
Stan Flemming, D.O., M.A., an army general and family practice physician from University Place, Wash., will lead the new osteopathic medical college as it gears up for its first class of 70 students in 2008.
"We are delighted that Dr. Flemming has accepted the Board's invitation to lead PNWU in this next important phase of development," said Paul Emmans, D.O., Chair of the Presidential Search Committee of the Board of Trustees. "Stan brings credentials of the highest caliber, and we are certain he is the right person to continue excellence and world-class leadership in the coming years. Each of our top three finalists offered outstanding qualifications to lead a university. We were honored to receive a remarkable number of highly accomplished applicants.”
A brigadier general with the United States Army, local elected official and former state legislator, Flemming is a decorated combat veteran and dedicated public servant. He was elected the first mayor of the City of University Place and has been a city council member there for 12 years, currently serving as mayor pro tem. Additionally, Dr. Flemming served in the Washington State Legislature representing the 28th District. In 1995, he was one of the top two candidates on the President of the United States’ Short List for Surgeon General, the first osteopathic physician to be considered for the position.
Yakima's New Medical School Getting Nationwide Attention
Updated: Sep 12, 2007 09:27 AM PDT
YAKIMA, Wash - Pacific Northwest University's new medical school in Terrace Heights has already received hundreds of inquiries for applications.
PNWU just recently was accredited through the Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation. Through this they are a part of an application service where potential students are notified of the new school.
In less than a week almost 500 people have inquired to university staff about applying.
"We were really surprised with regards to the number of individuals who expressed their interest in such a short amount of time," says Dr. William Betz, the Vice-President of PNWU.
In the first 12 hours of being accredited they had 300 inquiries.
Doctor Betz expects around 2000 applicants, 70 students will be accepted.
These potential applicants aren't just in the northwest but people all over the country who are interested in living in the Yakima valley.
The first day of classes will be in August of 2008.
PNWU Excited to Begin the Admissions Process
August 28, 2007
Yakima, WA - Pacific Northwest University has received provisional accreditation, which means the new medical school has the go ahead to start accepting applications from students.
Now the school will soon have some students to go along with its first building. Construction for that has been underway for several months.
Administrators are expecting more than 1500 applications for the 70-spots available in its first class.
"Got a phone call before eight o'clock this morning," says Leann Hunter-Chase who is the Admissions Director at PNWU.
They will start accepting applications in a week or two.
Hunter-Chase says the competition will be stiff with so many applications expected.
"We look at MCAT scores, degrees. What they have done in the medical field?"
Dr. William Betz is the school's first dean.
He says emphasis will also be put on students who are from the northwest. He estimates 550 students from the northwest who are currently enrolled in osteopathic medical schools throughout the country.
"That's 550 kids who had to go outside of the northwest to get an osteopathic medical education. We believe there is a significant opportunity to look at individuals who want to stay in the area and practice medicine in the area."
Pacific Northwest University expects to have its first class in place by April next year.
First New Medical School in Pacific Northwest in 60 Years
YAKIMA, Wash. -- The shovels of soil turned today represent a significant advancement toward improving access to health care for the people of the Pacific Northwest.
Groundbreaking ceremonies were held to launch construction of Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences (PNWU), the first medical school in 60 years to be built in the Pacific Northwest. The school and campus are located in the Terrace Heights area of Yakima in central Washington state.
The 48,000-square-foot, two-story facility housing PNWU's first school, the College of Osteopathic Medicine, is scheduled for completion in July 2008, with the first class of medical students expec |