The Dublin Integrated Education Center’s first floor is for completion in April before physician assistant students begin class.
Ohio University’s presence in Dublin continues to grow as the College of Health Sciences and Professions’ new facility nears completion.
OU will occupy the first and second floor of the three-story Dublin Integrated Education Center. The first floor is expected to be completed by April 1. The second floor should be completed by June 1, which is two months ahead of schedule, said Randy Leite, dean of the College of Health Sciences and Professions.
The college is expanding to Dublin because it needs more room.
“In Grover, we are seriously strapped for space,” Leite said. “More importantly, it lets us connect with opportunities in Central Ohio, the medical school and other universities and colleges.”
For instance, Columbus State Community College will be on the third floor.
“If you’ve ever been in a hospital, one thing that’s clear is medical professionals come together for the good of the patient,” Leite said. “There might be a time where you might walk into a classroom with students from three or four universities.”
A private developer, The Daimler Group, is building the center, and OU will began paying a lease once it takes over, Leite said.
The physician assistant program begins in May, though Leite said that should not pose a problem, as all of the teaching spaces will be on the first floor.
The center will represent the university's most recent venture into Dublin. In July, OU’s Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine opened its Dublin branch. The university is also considering creating a professional theater company in Dublin, according to a previous Post report.
“It was a natural choice to establish the physician assistant program in close proximity to HCOM in light of the potential for interprofessional education,” said Averell Overby, project leader of the Health Sciences and Professions’ Dublin program, in an email.
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The center’s first floor will house things such as a wet lab, a skills lab, standardized patient exam rooms, classrooms and an auditorium, Leite said.
The second floor includes offices, conference rooms and classrooms with moveable walls that can be used to create a more open space.
Other programs to be offered at the Dublin location include graduate certificates in subjects such as clinical informatics, health leadership, clinical teaching for the health professional and a degree in corporate wellness, Overby said.
The new Dublin Integrated Education Center will neighbor OU-HCOM on a 15-acre property in the Columbus suburb, according to a previous Post article.
OU-HCOM and the College of Health Sciences and Professions share a goal of helping rural, underserved areas, and the new Dublin branch allows the college to work with urban, underserved areas, Leite said.
“Being part of the greater Columbus metropolitan area, there’s a lot of ethnic diversity, and it’s quite expansive,” said Leslie Coonfare, senior director of strategic partnerships at the College of Health Sciences and Professions. “It can expose them to beliefs regarding health care that are different from the way (they) were raised.”
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