soleil9

No, this is definately a graduate Medical School. The confusion might come from some of the terminology we use. Medical school is often termed "undergraduate medical education" to differentiate it from "Graduate Medical Education". Those who are persuing graduate medical education are the interns and residents that work in the hospitals. They are graduates of medical school, carry a title of MD or DO, but they haven't completed their specialty training. Hope this makes sense!

Medical students have already fibnished undergrad, (we have at least a bachelors degree, some even have masters or PhD's) and so are in the 22-35 year old age range, to clarify that. Medical school is a 4 year program. The first 2 years are spent on the basic sciences/ pathology. This is mainly lecture/small group/lab type deal. Very traditional learning. Years 3 and 4 are spent rotating through the hopsitals, and in GR that includes Blodgett, Butterworth, and Saint Mary's and I believe Pine Rest for Psychiatry. So yes, when everything is in place you will have 400 med students in the area. But I guess I'm just saying that it probably won't add a traditional "student" feel, like GVSU adds to the area. It will probaby add more of a young professional feel, since we tend too be older, sometimes have families, and are very busy. Really, adding the Med school will most affect the research at the VanAndel (as I understand it MSU is hoping to make this a research focused campus) with more clinical and lab research than was ever possible in East Lansing. This is a very exciting start to an acedemic teaching hospital scene (MSU GR will rival Ann Arbor, I can feel it!!!) Medical breakthroughs will be coming from the Medical Mile!!

Metro was bursting at its seems. The land footprint that Metro Hospital had was tiny by hospital standards. It had nowhere to expand (surrounded completely by residential) and add services, like more operating suites, procedure rooms, more beds, nicer OB dept, rads, cardio, the list goes on and on. Definitely couldn't have been done on the current site. And to top it of, its gonna be one kick-a hospital! Also, hospitals need to be where the people are to provide the best care. If you are in Easttown, and have a heart attack, will you go to St Mary's, Blodgett, Butterworth, or Metro? All are extremely close. But what about the people in the southern suburbs? They've got to truck into downtown for services. Really, GR probably needs to decentralize the hospitals even more. What about the northern suburbs? I don't know enough about the pop. density of the area to know for sure. Anyway, MetroHealth Hospital is going to rock! There's going to be an employee hard-hat walk through today, anybody have a report or picts? I can't wait to see the inside!