Senate Bill S5454

                                 BILL NUMBER:  S5454A

 TITLE OF BILL :
An act directing the president of the State University of New York
Upstate Medical University to conduct a study to explore the viability
and compelling need for branch campuses of the State University of New
York Upstate Medical University in the Fort Drum/Watertown and Mohawk
Valley Regions of New York State


 PURPOSE :
Directs the President of the State University of New York Upstate
Medical University to conduct a study to explore the viability and
compelling need for Branch Campuses of the State University of New
York Upstate Medical University in the Fort Drum/Watertown and Mohawk
Valley Regions of New York State.

 SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS :
Section 1 directs State University of New York UPSTATE Medical
University to examine, evaluate and make recommendations concerning
establishment of Branch Campuses of the Upstate Medical University for
the Fort Drum/Watertown Region of New York State and the Mohawk Valley
Region of New York State, including the greater Utica and Rome areas.

Section 2 directs State University of the New York Upstate Medical
University to report the findings to the Governor, the Legislature,
              

and the Board of Trustees of the State University of New York, on or
before January 2, 2010.

Section 3 would provide that the bill would take effect immediately.

 JUSTIFICATION :
SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse wants to live up to its
name by taking its people, programs and classroom into the 17-county
region it serves. By acting now, the University may be just in time to
address serious health care and economic uncertainties shared by many
communities.

Academic Health Centers (AHC) have a reputation for exhibiting
symptoms of "build it and they will come" syndrome. Indeed, most other
AHC's in New York State sit in the center of their defined universe,
waiting for patients, referrals, students and trauma victims.

Upstate Medical University wants to do something different. It sits in
the center of a region which includes some of the best specialists,
the finest facilities and access to excellent training.  This
15,000-square-mile region (one third of New York's land mass) also is
home to some of the worst health care disparities - and that situation
is getting more dire as we look five and 10 years down the line.

Statewide census and workforce numbers point to the problem: not
enough physicians and health professionals are choosing small
communities in which to set up practice. The Center for Health
Workforce Studies recent report bears this out. Physician supply lags
significantly in rural areas.  While New York's cities have 340
physicians per 100,000 people, rural areas have just 169 physicians
per 100,000 people, and the number is falling. In the North Country,
the physician population has dropped by eight percent over the last
five years. In that same time period the number of active physicians
in the Mohawk Valley declined eight percent.

Several important documents have described the inadequacy of primary
care in New York State.  The final report of the Commission on Health
Care Facilities in the 21st Century (known as the Berger Report) cited
evidence that there is a remarkable lack of primary care services in
rural areas and recommended that all New York residents have a primary
care "home" and that an investment in the development of an educated
work force is needed to stem the erosion of primary care capacity.

The American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) has also
emphasized the need for more physicians, particularly primary care
physicians. In its "Recent Studies and Reports on Physician Shortages
in the U.S." the AAMC documented 15 independent state reports on
physician shortages, including New York, and cited 16 specialty
medical care shortage reports, and three national studies on physician
work force shortages.

Many call this a "collision of realities". The challenges of rural
medicine have left many communities in the region looking for ways to
produce, attract - and keep - the physicians, allied health and
nursing professionals to staff their facilities. The withdrawal of a
once robust manufacturing and family farm base has left the populace
older, poorer and sicker with fewer resources to take care of them.

Multiple issues surrounding care of the elderly continue to surface.
The existing lack of primary and specialty care is made more acute by
the prevalence of the big four diseases: diabetes, asthma, cancer and
heart disease.

Upstate's name reflects its mission... that means it further plans to
extend itself to the community in ways not seen before. Fortunately, a
good outreach model exists - the Cooperative Extension pioneered by
Land Grant Colleges and Universities, including Cornell University.
To create its own version of an extension program, Upstate would join
forces with the health care, higher education, and business leadership
of the region to complement their services and establish branch
campuses and programs. All four colleges at SUNY Upstate would be
involved: the Colleges of Medicine, Nursing, Graduate Studies, and
Health Professions.

SUNY Upstate is committed to being part of the solution with its
recent launch of a "regional extension" concept to meet health care
and medical workforce needs. This ambition includes:  providing
medical care and access for patients; educating students; developing
degree programs that respond to State needs; increasing the student
body, especially the percentage from New York State, and offering
continuing education for doctors, nurses and other health
professionals in Central and Northern New York, and the Southern Tier.

Upstate already occupies a small footprint in the region. Its
Binghamton Campus has been training 80 third and fourth year medical
students each year since the 1970's. Upstate's Department of Family
Medicine is on the cusp of enhancing its Rural Medical program which
places medical students into outlying communities for a real-time, up
close experience with regional hospitals and physician preceptors.

The prospect of a Branch Campuses for the Fort Drum/Watertown and
Mohawk Valley regions is a perfect fit for Upstate's Regional
Extension model and should be explored in detail. Such campuses would
provide a ready supply of professionals - including medical graduates,
physician assistants and nurse practitioners specializing in family
mental health and lift the clinical profile of the communities.

 LEGISLATIVE HISTORY :
New Bill.

 FISCAL IMPLICATIONS :
None.

 EFFECTIVE DATE :
Immediately.