RCC to build new Allied Health facility on Redwood campus
Jan. 12—Rogue Community College plans to renovate a building on its Redwood Campus in Grants Pass to train health care workers.
RCC announced plans this week for an "Allied Health training facility," named for the department that houses the programs the renovated building will serve, including certified nursing assisting, dental assisting, medical assisting and medical office assisting, pharmacy technicians and phlebotomists.
"Those are the current programs we are offering through our Allied Health department," said Juliet Long, vice president of student learning and success.
Those programs currently are offered at the Health Professions Center on the RCC Table Rock campus. But when the newly renovated building is complete, it too will offer those programs.
"We're removing the travel and location barriers for our Josephine County students to access our training," Long said.
She noted, however, that certified nursing already is available in a temporary facility at the Redwood Campus.
"The demand is so high for certified nursing," Long said. "The other programs will come (to Josephine County) after the building is renovated."
The Allied Health training facility is an effort to help health care employment needs in the area, RCC stated in a news release.
"Future graduates from the Allied Health programs will be vital to our existing economic development efforts and the growing need for trained health care workers in our region," said RCC President Randy Weber. "Families, health care organizations and businesses across Southern Oregon will be strengthened and supported as a result of this federal investment."
The building that will house the Allied Health training facility used to house science programs. But now, RCC's Redwood campus has a new Science Center, which opened last summer.
Long said RCC officials are "very excited" to renovate an old building and make it new.
"The building has some design challenges, and so this will be an opportunity for us to turn it into a space that meets the needs for health care training," she said. "The interior is going to be fantastic."
The project will be completed using $3.6 million in funding from the Congressionally Directed Spending process, along with money from its own capital funds.
"We couldn't have done this project without their support, and I appreciate them recognizing the health care worker shortage in our community," Long said, referring to U.S. senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley. "By them supporting this, it provides us an opportunity to offer that training to our Josephine County residents."
In an RCC news release, Merkley called the Allied Health training facility "a great example of federal dollars being leveraged for win-win opportunities to expand health care services and create jobs in Southern Oregon."
Reach reporter Kevin Opsahl at 541-776-4476 or kopsahl@rosebudmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @KevJourno.
