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New Nurse Training Center Fueled by Hospitals 2 Million Donation

A community college in Washington state has opened a $13.2 million health science center to help put more health care workers in the pipeline. The 66,000 square foot Columbia Basin College Health Science Center includes state of the art training and simulation rooms for not only nurses, but other medical fields such as paramedics, emergency medical technicians, radiologic technologists and phlebotomists.



Kadlec Medical Center, a 172 bed not for profit community hospital in Richland, contributed $2 million to the project, and has a long-term lease on the building'ss fourth floor. The center is located adjacent to the Kadlec campus. The rest of the money for the project came from other private donations, plus state and federal sources.



It'ss important that we have a project like this, said Bill Moffitt, chair of the Kadlec board of directors. The Health Science Center is a major solution to a problem that plagues the health care industry. This project will open the pipeline wider bringing more people into the health care workforce.



Columbia Basin College president Lee Thornton agrees. This is a one stop health sciences education center, said Thornton. It is our hope that this center will help address a long-term need of health care workers.



Washington Governor Chris Gregoire was unable to attend the building dedication. But, in taped remarks, Gov. Gregoire noted that education is the single most important economic driver in our state. She added that Kadlec'ss donation along with the state and federal appropriations, the Columbia Basin College Health Science Center is a model public-private partnership.



The center'ss nursing lab has a 12 simulated beds that provide a real-life hospital setting for students. Eventually, the diagnostic radiology area will have two operational X-ray machines which will be tied into Kadlec'ss systems. The center will also house a print and digital medical library that will be located on the third floor.

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