Crozer-Chester Medical Center (Crozer) in Delaware County will serve as a regional medical campus for Drexel University College of Medicine, beginning July 2017. The designation is an expansion of Crozer’s longstanding academic affiliation with the college.
Regional medical campus is a term used by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) to refer to hospitals and health systems that serve as alternative venues for medical students to gain clinical education. Under the new designation, Drexel medical students will have the option to select Crozer as their primary clinical campus, which means they can complete all of their required clinical rotations at the medical center during their third year of medical school. Crozer will provide the full complement of training in core clinical areas.
The College of Medicine currently has five regional medical campuses and 17 academic campuses. Up to 24 students per medical class will complete all of their clinical rotations at Crozer.
“We are so pleased that Crozer is joining us as a regional medical campus. Although we’ve had a longstanding academic relationship with the medical center, this new designation will allow our students to interact more extensively with Crozer’s experienced physician faculty in an outstanding clinical environment,” said Valerie Weber, MD, vice dean for educational affairs at the College of Medicine.
Crozer is a 300-bed, tertiary-care teaching hospital located in Upland, Pennsylvania. The hospital is part of Crozer-Keystone Health System, the largest employer and health care provider in Delaware County. Crozer features the county’s only trauma and burn centers, a regional cancer center, a regional kidney transplant center, a Level III intensive care nursery, and advanced outpatient, surgical and acute care services. It admits more than 19,000 patients, treats approximately 53,000 Emergency Department patients and delivers about 1,700 babies per year.
The hospital has been a clinical campus of the College of Medicine for over 30 years. It hosts more than 100 medical students on site each day in the Departments of Medicine, Surgery, Pediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Psychiatry, Family Medicine and Neurology, with full-time educators in each department.
“We are thrilled to begin this new and expanded relationship with the well-respected Drexel University College of Medicine. With our esteemed clinical team and our diverse, comprehensive clinical offerings, we are confident that Crozer will be a popular choice for Drexel students,” said Patrick Gavin, CEO of Crozer-Keystone Health System.
Stephen T. Higgins, MD, will serve as associate dean of the regional medical campus.
“I look forward to working closely with Drexel educators and administrators over the next year to develop our clinical campus. My colleagues and I greatly anticipate the opportunity to provide our students with an excellent, well-rounded experience,” Higgins said.
For inquiries regarding Crozer, media should contact Grant Gegwich at Grant.Gegwich@crozer.org or 610.447.6316.