As its great steel structure continues to rise toward the sky on the University of Kentucky campus, it is hard to miss the construction — and the excitement — of the Michael D. Rankin MD Health Education Building.
Once completed in Spring 2027, the 509,000-square-foot facility located at the intersection of University and Huguelet drives will house programs in the colleges of Medicine, Public Health, Health Sciences and Nursing, as well as the Center for Interprofessional and Community Health Education and will be the largest academic building on UK’s campus.
“We’ve struggled at times in the past because we did not have adequate resources,” said Phillip Tibbs, MD, emeritus chair of neurosurgery, UK College of Medicine. “Classrooms were too small. We weren’t able to accommodate the number of students that we really need to serve the needs of our population.”
Now, Tibbs believes that the possibilities are endless.
“This is opening up so many creative ways where we can expand what it means to be a doctor and how we can serve the people that call upon us to be served,” he said.
Despite its size though, the building is about much more than space.
“The Rankin Health Education Building will create an opportunity to train more students and enhance the workforce for all of Kentucky,” said Robert DiPaola, MD, provost and co-executive vice president for health affairs.
The ambitious project was authorized by the 2022 Kentucky General Assembly, which allocated $430 million for the construction of the facility and is providing $250 million in state bonds for the project. The construction phase was approved by the UK Board of Trustees in June 2023 and construction began in October 2023.
“The health of Kentucky is a complex challenge,” said Sarah Cprek, PhD, assistant dean for undergraduate affairs in the College of Public Health. “As the flagship land-grant institution, the University of Kentucky is wanting to tackle that and I think the health education building is a great way to do it.”
The current and growing shortage of health care providers in Kentucky includes physicians, nurses, physician assistants, physical therapists, athletic trainers, medical laboratory scientists, speech language pathologists, audiologists, public health officials and other health care professionals.
Addressing this health care workforce shortage is paramount to the mission of UK, and the new facility will increase UK’s training capacity by up to 1,200 students, translating to more health professionals armed with the skills to create a healthier Kentucky for all and especially where shortages are most prominent.
“We see and we review so many applications from students who speak about health care access and them and their family members having to travel hours to find health care because it’s just not available in our rural areas,” said Nadia Henry, clinical education support associate, College of Health Sciences.
For senior nursing student Jessica Borzanky, the new facility is a commitment to the future of students just like her.
“It makes me feel that University of Kentucky really, truly cares about our Kentucky people, about patient outcomes and us as people,” Borzansky said. “So, I think they put a lot of work into this to give us a better foundation and education for students.”
An important component and concept of the building is shared hallways, classrooms, educational labs and spaces to promote the exchange of ideas, knowledge and perspectives, leading to research studies, development of new treatment approaches and implementation of evidence-based practices that improve patient outcomes.
“The complex problems that we deal with in health care are critical,” said James Ballard, Ed.D., director of the Center for Interprofessional and Community Health Education. “They're literally, in some cases, life and death so we need to make sure that the students that we work with understand how to deal with these complex problems with patients, the best they can in a team environment.
“We’re not just trying to make sure that Fayette County has the best and brightest health professionals,” he said. “We want to make sure that the Commonwealth of Kentucky has the best and the brightest health professionals.”