NCH Healthcare System in Naples signed a letter of intent Jan. 25 to transfer to FSU the 28,000-square-foot Isabel Collier Read medical building in Immokalee, a rural farming town east of Naples and Ft. Myers, for the development of a rural medicine training program for third- and fourth-year medical students.

As early as 2004, the Collier County Commission authorized $250,000 in Immokalee’s community redevelopment funds to move the project forward, and the community began its own fundraising drive, which quickly netted $20,000.

Immokalee, which has a per capita income of $8,576, becomes a seasonal home each year to more than 20,000 migrant workers, most of whom are Hispanic or Haitian and have limited access to health care.

The rural health training center would enable medical students and FSU students in other health-related disciplines, such as nursing, social work and clinical psychology, to come to Immokalee for training under faculty supervision. In turn, FSU faculty would add to the medical services available in the community. For those educational rotations not available in Immokalee, FSU would establish training opportunities in nearby Naples.  

As the medical school expands its entering class size to 120 students over the next two years, additional campuses will be needed to accommodate the growing numbers of third- and fourth-year students coming through the pipeline.

With that in mind, FSU President T.K. Wetherell entered into discussions with the presidents of Daytona Beach Community College and Indian River Community College about the possibility of locating future branches of the FSU College of Medicine on the community college campuses.

Support from both community colleges and the surrounding communities has been strong. The boards of Halifax Medical Center and Daytona Beach Community College each formally endorsed the Daytona Beach proposal Feb. 1. And on Feb. 7, Indian River Community College publicly announced its intentions to partner with FSU. The university will seek funding for the proposed campuses in the coming legislative session.