Valleywise Health awarded $3M grant for simulated medical training

PHOENIX — Valleywise Health has been awarded a $3 million grant from the Maricopa County Industrial Development Authority to assist in developing a comprehensive medical simulation training program.

The health care provider will use the funds to facilitate hands-on learning experiences for hundreds of medical residents and students with state-of-the-art technology in the heart of Phoenix, Valleywise Health’s Chief Medical Officer Michael White told KTAR News 92.3 FM.

“It really allows us to create the environment where our health care professionals will be working,” he said.

“We can recreate a hospital room, we can recreate a clinic room, we can recreate a behavioral health room. We will have all the equipment necessary in those spaces exactly like it would be in the hospital.”

The three year grant will provide partial funding for staffing and hospital equipment for a training center with realistic intensive care units, labor and delivery suites, operating rooms, trauma bays, primary care clinics and behavioral health units.

“The grant to Valleywise Health will allow for further enhancement of our important healthcare industry in Maricopa County,” MCIDA Board Member Jim Rounds said.

“This is an area of economic importance that has been highlighted by COVID-19 most recently but has always had economic development potential well beyond the current base,”

Valleywise Health has one of the largest postgraduate training programs in the region. In partnership with the Creighton University Arizona Health Education Alliance, Valleywise Health trains more than 200 physicians per year.

“This will allow them to understand how to use their hands and the instruments in this environment so when they go into the operating room working with their supervising physician, they already understand some of the basics there and are able to translate those skills to direct patient care,” White added.

Valleywise Health was chosen for this grant in part because about 75% of their trained physicians end up practicing medicine in Arizona.

Annually, nearly 1,200 students pursuing their degrees in nursing, medicine, pharmacy, respiratory therapy, radiology, occupational therapy, paramedic, and phlebotomy train at Valleywise Health.

Use of the simulation technology is expected to start next year. The construction of the simulation rooms is expected to be completed by October 2024.

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