United Health Foundation awards UNLV School of Medicine $3 million grant

L to R: U.S. Rep. Joe Heck; Len Jessup, UNLV President; Dr. Barbara Atkinson, Founding Dean, UNLV School of Medicine; Jack Larsen, Executive Vice President of OptumCare; and Don Giancursio, CEO of UnitedHealthcare.

United Health Foundation has awarded the University of Las Vegas School of Medicine a $3 million grant as part of a partnership that will create a new integrated training program for medical students, the two announced Wednesday. The program is part of an effort by the medical school to address a widespread lack of access to medical care across the state.

The new program comes as Nevada faces a severe shortage of physicians. The state is languishing at the bottom of the ranks when it come to the number of doctors per 100,000 people, 47th out of 50 to be exact, including nearly every medical specialty. That's according to United Health Foundation's America's Health Rankings. This potentially harmful shortage means many Nevadans have trouble accessing necessary and timely health care.

Thanks to the grant, over the next five years medical education and course curriculum, including population health and hospitality in health care, will be put in place. These programs will support the Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship model, a structure that will have the school's third-year medical students spending an entire year in an outpatient clinic taking care of patients under faculty and resident supervision.

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The grant also will enable the construction of three multispecialty community clinics that will offer a full array of primary care and basic specialty-care services. Those clinics are a key component of the LIC model, as they will serve as the clinical training sites for students.

United Health Foundation's partnership with UNLV builds on other investments UnitedHealth Group has made to expand access to care throughout Nevada, including the March launch of the "Medicine on the Move" mobile doctor's office, which is designed to minimize barriers to health care – such as transportation, child care, work obligations and the low number of primary care physicians in Nevada.

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"This partnership aligns with the UNLV School of Medicine's mission to improve access to care for Medicaid patients while advancing clinical, education and research solutions in southern Nevada," said UNLV School of Medicine Founding Dean Dr. Barbara Atkinson. "We are grateful for United Health Foundation's leadership and their partnership to build a state-of-the-art educational institution."

Twitter: @BethJSanborn