University of Utah plans to launch new medical school in St. George focused on rural health care

It’s a statistic University of Utah President Taylor Randall says unsettles him: Utah ranks dead last among states for the number of primary care doctors for its population.

The state has 60.2 physicians for every 100,000 residents — a figure falling behind Mississippi. And those numbers, Randall said, get even worse in Utah’s more remote, rural areas that he calls “medical deserts.” It’s dire, the president added, as some areas have zero doctors within 100 miles.

Randall and other leaders in Utah’s education and medical worlds are pushing to change that. On Wednesday, they announced their first steps toward opening a new medical school in St. George that will focus on training doctors who want to specialize in rural health.

“We think this is a big step forward in providing rural medical care and getting doctors into communities that desperately need it right now,” Randall told the Utah Legislature earlier this year when he first spoke about his vision.

Lawmakers this session responded by earmarking $5.5 million to start the landmark medical school expansion. It will be led by the U. — the state’s premier research and medical education institution with a top-ranked medical school in Salt Lake City — in a partnership with Utah Tech University, which serves southern Utah’s Washington County and surrounding region. Intermountain Health, the largest nonprofit health care system in the intermountain West, as well as other community-based health care providers are also joining the effort.

Applications are already open for students interested in attending what’s being called the Southern Utah Regional Medical Campus.

The first cohort of 10 students is expected to start in 2026. They will spend the first 14 months of their doctor of medicine program in Salt Lake City, at the U.’s current medical school location, in a clinic with medically underserved communities and learning the foundational science. That will continue to be the path, even after the campus in St. George opens in 2027.

For their second year, students will move to Utah Tech for their clinical training. Intermountain Health will provide “immersive inpatient experiences at affiliated hospitals” and clinics, according to the website for the U.’s new school.

In a third year, the plan is for students to complete rotations across the region “and have an opportunity to travel further afield to rural and critical access hospitals throughout southern Utah.” Intermountain, for instance, has centers in Cedar City, Hurricane, Centerville and other small towns.

The program hope is to be accelerated at just three years, instead of the traditional four years of medical school. Randall said that’s because a fourth year is typically focused on students figuring out their speciality, where this cohort will already be focused on rural health.

The hope is also to get more physicians in the field faster and change the statistics.

“We’re committed to being part of solving that problem,” said Michelle Hofmann, senior associate dean for the coming medical school, talking to reporters Wednesday.

Right now, she said, about 22% of Utah’s population lives in rural areas. Only about 11% of primary care physicians, though, are located there.

“Primary care keeps us healthy and happy and out of hospitals, and we really need to broaden the access in our state so folks get the care they need,” she added.

Hofmann previously worked in the Utah Department of Health and Human Services. She said it’s “energizing” to address the issues she’s long been aware of.

‘A worthwhile investment’

Students at the St. George medical school will be able to choose one of two certificates: population health sciences or tribal, rural and underserved medical education.

Only students interested in working in rural areas will be considered, and those from Utah who want to stay in Utah (or generally the rural West) will be given priority, the school says.

All but five of Utah’s 29 counties, according to the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration, have a geographic shortage of primary care physicians for part of their coverage areas.

In 2021, the number of doctors and advanced nurses per 1,000 people was zero in Piute County, in south-central Utah. Most counties averaged three providers for 1,000 residents.

Summit County, by comparison, has the highest rate in Utah, with 8.8 providers for 1,000 residents.

Still, the whole state, including the Wasatch Front, is technically stressed by a doctor shortage, according to November data from federal Health Resources and Services Administration that ranked Utah last for its physician ratio.

Overall, Utah has roughly 3,100 primary care doctors.

Utah is home to three medical schools: The U., and two private schools that offer doctorates in osteopathic medicine. Brigham Young University has announced plans to open their own medical school.

How many students the U. can currently accommodate cannot keep up with the demand for care.

Each year, the University of Utah admits 125 medical students. With four years of training, that means there are 500 medical students total at a time. There are roughly 1,000 residents and fellows working with University of Utah Health, too.

The new medical school campus in St. George will admit 10 students. The hope is to scale up, with time and more funding, to accommodate up to 25 students.

Data, Hofmann said, show that students who train here are likely to stay here.

“That’s a worthwhile investment of our state dollars,” she said.

Of those who complete medical school in Utah, 40% remain in the state. Of those who do their residencies here, 45% stay. And for doctors who do both in Utah, the retention level is 70%.

What’s next

The U. has long partnered with Utah Tech University on graduate level degrees, so the groundwork is laid. The most popular program the universities share is a physician assistant program.

That program, now in its seventh year, lets students earn their degree from the U., while Utah Tech provides the physical classrooms and services.

The U. says the new medical school will “follow a similar structure.” The University of Utah holds the accreditation to offer medical degrees.

The school, though, did recently choose to close a graduate center it had been operating in St. George to save money after Legislature-imposed budget cuts. The U. has had to slash $19.6 million from its budget and Utah Tech $2.6 million.

The Legislature, though, has appeared supportive of the partnership for medical students in St. George.

“I think that’s an amazing way to get physicians out in the field,” Rep. Katy Hall, R-South Ogden, said in January. Hall is a registered nurse, and her husband is a physician.

Lawmakers are expected to designate more for the medical campus as it gets further along. The project, overall, will cost in the hundreds of millions.

One challenge officials discussed Wednesday will be finding existing doctors in the region who have the time and capacity to train students. Intermountain Health is expected to help with that.

Physicians already in rural Utah have long been pushing for more help or policies to strengthen care in the region.

Last year, Danielle Pendergrass, who has run the Eastern Utah Women’s Health in Price since launching it a decade ago, said there was a high rate of breast cancer among her patients because women weren’t getting mammograms. She has seen the same trends, she told The Salt Lake Tribune, that a lot of preventative care was being skipped in those health care deserts.

Pendergrass said even in non-emergency situations telehealth — such as virtual appointments — isn’t a perfect solution. There needs to be doctors on the ground.

Colten Bracken, a family medicine doctor in Enterprise in Washington County, agrees. He also spoke to the U. for a video about the new St. George medical school.

“I think all medical students should have a rural medicine rotation,” he said.

Not only do those areas need it, Bracken said, but practicing care “in a resource-limited area” makes for better, more resourceful doctors and less unsettling statistics.