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Mar. 28—Reading Area Community College is looking to help address the growing need for health care workers in the region with a new project.
The college has announced it will convert its Weitz Hall into the Weitz Healthcare Pavilion. The multimillion-dollar project will increase classroom and lab spaces in the building, realign the structure of RACC's health science programs and consolidate those programs into one facility.
The project will allow the community college to increase the number of students in its health care programs by 80%.
"The Weitz Heathcare Pavilion will serve our community by providing Berks County students with a quality education in the health care fields and then bring these skilled workers to our local medical facilities," said Dr. Susan Looney, RACC president. "The RACC students who learn at the Weitz Healthcare Pavilion will go on to care for all of us within our region."
Work on the health care pavilion will begin in May and is expected to conclude in August 2024. The building's current footprint will be expanded to create a new lobby and student lounge space.
When complete, the first floor of the new facility will feature state-of-the-art simulation nursing and respiratory care lab spaces with a central observation room and two debriefing rooms.
The second floor will include simulated patient rooms with cardiac monitors, alarms, and air supply systems that mimic real-life patient care areas. It will also be home to the college's short-term health care professions programs, such as the nurses aid program.
The third and fourth floors will have redesigned classroom spaces, as a well as phlebotomy and dental assistant labs.
RACC has so far received $10 million in government funding for the project, and has begun a campaign to solicit further funding from local businesses, foundations and philanthropists. The project is expected to have a total price tag of around $22 million.
City Council in December allocated $2 million each in ARPA funds to Alvernia University, Albright College and Reading Area Community College.
RACC administrators said the college's share of the funds will be used toward the project.
"We are grateful to the mayor and City Council for their support of the future Weitz Healthcare Pavilion," Looney said at the time. "This facility will allow us to double our health care programs, addressing the critical need for skilled, well-trained health care professionals in Berks County."
The need for well-skilled health professionals is higher than ever, said David Hessen, RACC's director of marketing and communications.
"We have 700 RACC students on our waiting list to enter our RACC Nursing Program," he said. "Our nursing program costs only $6,000 and takes only two years to complete."
Graduates of the college's nursing program, he added, have a pass rate of 94% on the state board exam.
In addition to allowing for the doubling of enrollment in RACC's health care programs, such as the nursing program, Hessen said, the completed Weitz pavilion will allow the college to add to add other critically needed programs to qualify emergency medical technicians and paramedics, psychiatric and mental health services personnel, physical therapist assistants and other health care management technicians and personnel.
Tony DeMarco, RACC's vice president of advancement, said the hefty investment will be fruitful, serving to bolster the local health care industry.
"Through the Weitz Healthcare Pavilion, we will continue to graduate qualified health care workers with diverse backgrounds resulting in equitable representation in our region's health care centers," he said. "The majority of health care students who graduate from RACC in both the academic and workforce curriculum remain in Berks County."
For more information about the Weitz Healthcare Pavilion, contact DeMarco at 610-607-6294 or ademarco@racc.edu.
(Reporter Michelle Lynch contributed to this story.)