Building on medical school to start
Gazette Times
By Alex Paul Gazette-Times reporter
Lebanon facility will be first new med school in Oregon in a century
Stephen McIlmoil’s goal in life is to practice emergency room medicine in the mid-valley. His dream moved closer to reality Tuesday afternoon.
The 29-year-old Portland native and former Albany resident helped Samaritan Health Services and the City of Lebanon celebrate a groundbreaking for the first new medical school to be built in Oregon in more than 100 years. More than 300 people attended the event, held under a giant tent and in nearly perfect summer weather.
The new osteopathic university campus, which will be called Samaritan Health Sciences Center and College of Osteopathic Medicine Northwest Campus, will be constructed west of the Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital. It will be operated by Samaritan Health Services and the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific, a division of Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona, Calif.
"This is truly a great opportunity," McIlmoil said after receiving a piece of cake from Dr. Benjamin Cohen, university provost, in a ceremony in which one generation of medical provider passes the torch on to the next generation.
