University of Missouri to expand Springfield campus to four-year medical school

After establishing a clinical site in Springfield a decade ago, the University of Missouri School of Medicine is expanding its local campus to a four-year medical school. 

MU officials say the expansion is expected to boost opportunities for students to learn and work in Springfield amid a statewide shortage of physicians. The Springfield site began operations in 2016, providing education and clinical rotations through partnerships with CoxHealth and Mercy Springfield Communities for third- and fourth-year students after two years of studying at MU’s Columbia campus. But with the program expansion, plans call for the full medical school curriculum to be offered to local students starting in summer 2027.

Currently leasing 22,000 square feet in a building at 1845 S. National Ave., MU in November purchased a 77,000-square-foot building from Jack Henry & Associates Inc. (Nasdaq: JKHY) that will serve as the new Springfield campus site for its medical school. MU officials declined to disclose the purchase price for the facility, located at 3737 S. Battlefield Road, near its intersection with Blackman Road. Jack Henry maintains ownership and operations of a second building on the property.  

Dr. Richard Barohn, MU’s executive vice chancellor for health affairs and dean of the School of Medicine, said he’s excited for the oncoming expansion, which he noted has been discussed internally for around six years.

“They’ll get all of what we call preclinical training – anatomy, physiology, microbiology, all the basics. They’re going to be getting it down in Springfield,” Barohn said of students. “The idea behind this is that if they spend the full four years of medical school in Springfield, then there is a higher chance that they’ll end up practicing in southern Missouri.” 

The Springfield campus currently hosts up to 28 third-year and 28 fourth-year students each year. That cohort size will grow to a capacity of 32 students next year, officials say. By the fall of 2030, officials hope the Springfield campus will have four classes of 32 students, or a total of 128 people. This would bring the total enrollment of medical students at the MU School of Medicine to as many as 672 across both campuses. 

Curriculum will be comparable at the Springfield and Columbia campuses, officials say, and partnerships will continue with CoxHealth and Mercy to offer clinical rotations for its medical students. 

Addressing workforce
Dr. Tim Jones, chief physician executive at CoxHealth, said the expansion provides the opportunity to grow the healthcare workforce locally. It has potential for a profound impact on filling jobs not just in the Springfield metro area but also the nearby rural communities, he said.

“As we continue as a community to grow not just with the opportunity from Mizzou expanding to a four-year clinical campus, but now the opportunity to grow residencies local and keep those doctors here practicing in a local area, it’s a significant benefit and a differentiator for southwest Missouri,” he said.

Jones said it’s commonly reported that there’s a national physician shortage, and efforts such as MU’s medical school expansion can help address the challenge. Nationally, projections in a 2024 study from the Association of American Medical Colleges say the U.S. will face a shortage of up to 86,000 physicians by 2036. In Missouri, the Cicero Institute, an Austin, Texas-based public policy organization, is projecting the state’s physician shortage will number more than 3,000 by 2030. 

“The reality is, they’re making less doctors, and doctors are retiring sooner. It’s just the fact of the matter,” he said. 

Jones said CoxHealth is fortunate to currently have only a handful of specialties that are challenging to find recruits, such as neurology. 

“That’s probably our biggest shortfall, I would say, from a physician shortage area,” he said. “Almost all of our other specialties, we’re at or near recruitment goals. Now we have attrition, retirement, things like that that we plan for. But we onboard an average of anywhere between 30 and 50 new physicians a year.”

Dr. Sadaf Sohrab, chief medical officer at Mercy Springfield Communities, said the healthcare provider’s doctors offered around 1,700 hours of instruction last year to MU medical students.

“We’ve had a very strong partnership with MU School of Medicine for decades,” she said, noting the medical school expansion takes the collaboration “to the next level.” 

Sohrab said physician recruitment can sometimes be challenging in Springfield from bigger cities or the East and West Coasts.

“I really believe it’s going to help us retain our talent here in town,” she said of the MU Springfield campus expansion. “All our college students have to leave and go somewhere else to do medical school and then go somewhere else to do residency. And we’re not able to retain them.

“So, I’m really hoping this is a step towards that pipeline for physicians locally from the 417 region who have roots over here, who have families over here and who want to serve and take care of us,” she added.

Both CoxHealth and Mercy officials declined to disclose physician shortage numbers. However, Jones said CoxHealth’s current average turnover rate for physicians is roughly 4%-5% per year. Nationally, the hospital staff turnover rate is 18.5%, a nominal increase from 2024, according to a 2026 study from nurse recruitment and retention firm NSI Nursing Solutions Inc. 

“We like to think we do a good job of getting them here, and we like to think we do an even better job of keeping them here,” Jones said. 

In residency
As for residencies, CoxHealth offers programs for graduate nursing, clinical pastoral education pharmacy and family medicine. CoxHealth recently announced it was adding a new family medicine residency program in Branson that will begin this summer. As of March, CoxHealth’s Springfield family medicine residency program, which began in 1987 in Springfield, has graduated 264 family physicians since its launch, according to its website. Officials were unable to provide graduate numbers for the other residencies by press time. 

Jones said additional expansion plans for its residencies are under consideration, declining to share details. 

Mercy doesn’t currently offer residency programs in Springfield, but local officials said that will soon change. While not ready to disclose plans, an announcement will be coming in the next couple of weeks, said Ettie Berneking, media relations and communications manager for Mercy. 

“We’re super excited,” Sohrab said. “It just goes with our vision for training that pipeline of physicians and then doing whatever we can as a hospital system for healthcare.” 

Although the MU School of Medicine does have students rotate through Citizens Memorial Hospital in Bolivar as part of its Rural Scholars program, the health provider is not involved in the university’s Springfield campus expansion plans, officials say. CMH has no residency programs, according to healthcare system officials.

Building plans
Barohn said MU has started moving operations to the Battlefield Road building, but renovations will be needed. He said the medical school will occupy around two-thirds of the space with the remainder for other university purposes yet to be determined. 

“The simulation lab, that’ll be moved over by next summer,” Barohn said. “But we have to do some reconstruction inside the building that we purchased so that it’ll accommodate the simulation lab.”

Renovation costs are still being finalized, officials say. Paragon Architecture LLC has been retained for the predesign and design phase, while a general contractor is yet to be selected. 

Dr. David Haustein, associate dean at the Springfield clinical campus, said he is among 10 staff members for the local medical school. An additional 14 physicians with CoxHealth and Mercy serve as associate clerkship directors, he said. MU officials say an additional 12 employees, including two more assistant deans, will be hired as part of the expanded staff. 

Prospective students may apply for admission to the Springfield campus beginning this month for the 2027-28 academic year, when the first 32-student class will begin their medical training. MU officials say the medical school operates on a rolling admission cycle.  

Barohn said between 20%-30% of MU School of Medicine graduates who finish their third and fourth years in Springfield end up living and working locally.

“But we think that with spending all four years there, that’ll actually make them even more agreeable to sticking around in Springfield,” he said. “If you do your undergrad, if you do your medical school and if you do your residency in Springfield, I think the chance of you staying and working in Springfield is going to be much higher than 30%.”