‘We still need more doctors’: Medical university in Summerlin expanding campus

Roseman University is looking to expand and bring a medical degree program to Summerlin.

The university on Tuesday unveiled a $500 million to $550 million three-phase plan to expand its campus in Summerlin from a few office buildings to a full-fledged medical school campus. The expansion will take place on the 32 acres of undeveloped land that Roseman University already owns. It could be completed by 2032, the university said.

The growth plan should allow Roseman University — a nonprofit private university that only focuses on medical education such as nursing, pharmaceutical studies and dental work — to expand its enrollment and programs, said Renee Coffman, co-founder and president of the university.

The university projects the investments made in the expansion will generate $1.86 billion in economic impact between 2024 to 2032 and support over 10,500 jobs.

Paul Umbach, founder and president of the consulting firm Tripp Umbach, which is advising Roseman University, said the expansion is demand-driven because of Southern Nevada’s rising population and relatively few medical education institutions.

“Southern Nevada has grown and added more people, it’s impossible to keep up with the demand for all the workforce,” he said. “And it’s almost impossible to keep up with the demand for health improvement.”

Once completed, the expansion should allow Roseman University to increase its enrollment in Nevada — the university also has a campus in Utah — from 750 students to 1,850, a 146 percent increase, a university spokesperson said.

One key part of this is Roseman University’s plans to add a second doctor of medicine program to Southern Nevada and third overall for the state, UNLV and UNR are the only institutions in Nevada with medical degree programs. Touro University Nevada offers a doctor of osteopathic medicine program.

“We still need more doctors,” Coffman said.

Nevada ranks 44th in the U.S. for access to health care, according to the U.S. News and World Report.

Increasing the number of medical professionals in Nevada can also spur the economy as businesses often make decisions on where to locate based on how good the health care and education systems are for an area, Umbach said.

Roseman is obtaining accreditation to launch the medical degree program, and Coffman said within the next two years the university probably will be able to outline a timeline for when these degrees will be offered.

The medical school should be able to accommodate 60 students per class year at first and could expand to 120 students per year down the line, she said.

The expansion will be done in three phases with the first focusing on adding more classroom buildings, a clinic, a 60,000-square-foot student union building and 2,500 parking spaces, according to the university. Construction on this phase could be completed by 2026. The second phase will add more parking, a retail building as well as an auditorium. The third phase will include two 100,000-square-foot buildings, with currently unknown uses.

Construction on the first phase could begin by the end of the year, Coffman said.

Roseman University is still raising funds for the expansion and is looking for donations, she said.

Coffman said she expects the university will be able to raise the funds for the full expansion as it can be a way for community members and businesses to invest in the overall health of Southern Nevada.

“It’s so important to have the public support, the community support, to help see this to fruition,” she said. “This is going to do so much for the community, both in terms of quality of health care and quality of education.”

Contact Sean Hemmersmeier at shemmersmeier@reviewjournal.com. Follow @seanhemmers34 on X.