Signing Ceremony For New St. Cloud Med School Occasion to Celebrate

(KNSI) – CentraCare and the University of Minnesota held a signing ceremony Monday morning for the new St. Cloud regional medical school campus.

It will begin operations in 2025. CentraCare President and CEO Ken Holman says money to make the school a reality has several moving parts. “The funding of this has three components. Certainly, money from the state legislature. Certainly, funds from CentraCare operational dollars, and the third is a campaign by the CentraCare Foundation that has a target of 50 million, and we’re over 11 million in two and a half months. So, it’s going extremely well, we’re just delighted.”

During the ceremony, Holman pulled out his original plan for CentraCare when he was hired in 2015. Dated Thanksgiving of that year, it listed a medical school. Holman says it is important to have a campus in Greater Minnesota because the data says that if you learn in smaller communities, you are more likely to practice there.

Officials from CentraCare, the University of Minnesota Medical School, plus local and state government were all on hand. Excitement was palpable, and several people remarked about how important the issue was to those they talked to in nearby communities. It was also reflective of the regional support needed to get a class of 24 students into class by 2025.

Holman says it will be a grand collaboration to pull it off. “The University of Minnesota actually grants the degrees. We don’t have the capacity nor the authority to grant the degree. What we have, though, is a commitment to be a partner with them. So, clinical rotations, financial support, space. All those things that are necessary to make sure that we get the job done right.”

It is the first expansion of the University of Minnesota Medical School system in 50 years. The St. Cloud campus joins established ones in Duluth and the Twin Cities. It will increase the number of doctors in the state by 10%.

CentraCare says it is already investing a quarter-billion dollars in its facility in northern St. Cloud over the next five years. It is also plowing money into nursing training and telemedicine investments, in addition to supporting the med school.

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