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OSU Veterinary Medicine on probation; authority asks lawmakers for tuition mix and hospital funding
Summary
OSU Veterinary Medicine Authority told lawmakers the college is on probation with the accreditor for low clinical referral volume and an aging teaching hospital. The authority seeks continued staffing funds, a recurring scholarship package to raise in-state enrollment and large capital support to replace the teaching hospital.
Dr. Jim Hess, CEO of the OSU Veterinary Medicine Authority and vice provost at OSU Center for Health Sciences, told the appropriations subcommittee the veterinary college is on probation with its accreditor and has 24 months to resolve deficiencies.
"We are currently on probation," Hess said, and added the accreditor cited two principal reasons: insufficient clinical referral volume and the age of the clinical facility. "We have a lot of needs. Much of what you all have provided for us thus far, we've made great progress in the last 18 months. But we have much, much more work to do." He said the hospital facility is about 42 years old.
Hess asked the legislature to continue funding the third year of a recently funded three-year faculty-restaffing plan to restore subspecialty clinical educators (radiology, neurology, oncology and emergency medicine) and to support resident and referral training needed to retain accreditation.
He also asked the legislature to fund a recurring scholarship and loan-forgiveness program to shift the student population toward more Oklahoma residents. "We admit 106 students every fall: 58 in-state and 48 out-of-state," Hess said. He argued that admitting more qualified in-state students increases the chance they will remain in Oklahoma practice after graduation.
Hess estimated a new teaching hospital would cost about $295 million. He said the college would prefer to amortize the construction through the state's legacy infrastructure mechanism if possible.
Hess told the committee the OSU Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory (ODDL) capacity has been expanded to include toxicology testing through a joint effort with the OSU Center for Health Sciences. He said toxicology services would begin around May 1.
Questions from lawmakers focused on timing and return on investment, workforce shortages in rural veterinary medicine and the authority's plans to keep operations running while building a new facility. Hess estimated roughly a 36-month period to stabilize accreditation and rebuild referral volume with the combination of new faculty and a modern teaching hospital.
