A vacant downtown property will be renovated, and will become the new home of the KU School of Medicine Salina Campus.

The University of Kansas and Salina Regional Health Center are moving the campus from its current location on the hospital property, to a new location in Dowtown Salina.

The Salina Regional Health Foundation has entered a contract to purchase the former Planter’s State Bank/Bank of America building at 138 N. Santa Fe Ave. to be the future home for the University of Kansas School of Medicine–Salina Campus. A $6.5 million capital campaign called the Blueprint for Rural Health also will soon be underway to renovate, furnish and equip the building and create an endowment for its future maintenance.

Salina businessman Dennis Collier tells KSAL News that he has sold the properties in the 100 block of N. Santa Fe, most recently a Bank of America facility.

Collier says that there a couple of different properties involved. The largest is the main building, which has about 61,000 square feet of gross space. The intent is to relocate and expand the school of medicine, from its current location at Salina Regional Health Center to the downtown location.

The new facility will provide 40,251 square feet of space to accommodate new curriculum changes for the school that go into effect in 2017. The new ACE Curriculum emphasizes Active Learning, Competency and Excellence, which requires a need for more small-group meeting space, clinical instruction and simulation labs and less space for large lecture halls. Once construction is complete the new campus will continue to be owned by the Salina Regional Health Foundation.

Salina Regional Health Center is instrumental in the KU School of Medicine Salina program.

KU–Salina is currently based out of the Braddick Building at Salina Regional Health Center. The 16,000 square foot building was formerly a nursing school dormitory on the hospital’s Santa Fe Campus and repurposed to accommodate the medical school.

The University of Kansas School of Medicine campus in Salina was created to address the critical shortage of physicians in Kansas. This innovative medical education program is aimed at students with a strong desire to practice in rural areas.

With eight students admitted each year, the Salina campus is the smallest four-year medical education site in the country. University leaders believe it can serve as a model for the nation.

The educational environment in Salina is as high-tech as it it is intimate. Students learn with their peers on the Kansas City and Wichita campuses via interactive video and podcasts. Other training takes place in the offices of rural physicians and at the Salina Regional Health Center, which is adjacent to the school’s Braddick Building.

The first class of eight graduated in May of 2015 and the second class will graduate this month. A number of these first 16 graduates have entered or accepted positions with primary care residency programs and several have already committed to practice in rural communities in Kansas upon completion of training.

Collier says “this could have an extreme, positive impact for Downtown Salina for many years to come.”

KU–Salina is currently based out of the Braddick Building at Salina Regional Health Center.