St. John's University Opens $106 Million St. Vincent Health Sciences Center

https://www.crainsnewyork.com/health-pulse/st-johns-university-unveils-st-vince…

St. John’s University is unveiling a multimillion dollar health sciences facility in Jamaica today, joining the growing number of institutions investing in programs to quell the nation’s health care staffing crisis.

The university plans to announce the opening of the St. Vincent Health Sciences Center, a 70,000 square-foot building on its main Queens campus designed to become the home of its nursing, radiology, physician assistant and clinical lab technician programs. The building, which cost $106 million, has classrooms, administrative offices and simulation labs to replicate scenarios that clinicians-in-training might encounter in a hospital.

The construction of the health sciences center, which began in the spring of 2022, emerged out of a need for space to train students within St. John’s growing health care programs. The university received some funding from the state and federal government but covered the majority of the project costs.

The university decided to invest in a hub for its health care training programs during the pandemic as surrounding hospital partners including Northwell, Catholic Health and New York-Presbyterian said they struggled to staff because of persistent shortages, said Dr. Simon Møller, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at St. John’s. “They are desperate for nurses,” he said.

Despite investments from the state and private organizations, hospitals say they have continued to struggle to hire staff. Gov. Kathy Hochul has made efforts to combat shortages, including her recent $646 million, multiyear investment to train workers through the 1115 Medicaid waiver program. But as many workers fled during the pandemic and there remains a limited number of students in the pipeline, health care facilities have struggled to fill the gaps.

St. John’s is aiming to help train and graduate clinicians that can immediately transition to work in health systems in the surrounding neighborhood by offering simulations and real-world experience. The new health sciences building will include five simulation labs with high-tech mannequins that act like human patients, so that students can practice in labor and delivery settings, acute care rooms and even home care environments, said Brian Baumer, associate vice president for campus facilities at St. John’s.

The health sciences center has also partnered with the Colorado-based virtual reality technology company Perspectus Tech to offer simulated training, Møller said. Students can use a headset to perform a virtual colonoscopy or measure a polyp using deidentified data from real patients, he added.

The health sciences center will serve St. John’s approximately 1,200 nursing students, 200 physician assistants and 100 radiologic science students, Møller said.

St. John’s has invested more money in its Queens campus as shutters operations in other boroughs. The university, founded in 1870, shut down its campus on Staten Island at the end of the most recent spring semester because of the financial impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic and declining enrollment at Catholic high schools that were feeders for the institution.