OHSU Faces Cautious Support and Skepticism at Capitol for $200 Million Request

Oregon Health & Science University brought its heavyweights to the Capitol on Friday with a request that the state pitch in $200 million worth of general obligation bonds to help Oregon invest in a “cancer-curing economy.”

“We’ve got to do a better job of fighting cancer at its earliest, most curable stages,” said Dr. Brian Druker, the director of the Knight Cancer Institute, who promised that Oregon has an opportunity to become one of the premier cancer research facilities in America. He said the science conducted at the new facility would analyze cancer at the molecular level.

The money is requested to help OHSU meet the demands of a challenge from Nike tycoon Phil Knight, who put up half a billion dollars for cancer research if the medical school could match him. The medical college hospital claims to have the resources for $300 million in capital dollars for two new buildings plus $500 million in other costs.

But it still wants to lean on the state this session to borrow $200 million on its behalf, eating up a large portion of Oregon’s bond liability for an increasingly deep-pocketed public corporation.

Legislators on the capital construction budget committee greeted Druker and OHSU President Dr. Joe Robertson with cautious support, led by Sen. Fred Girod, R-Stayton, a dentist and the co-chairman of the committee: “As a graduate of [OHSU] and a cancer survivor, I want to make this work, but we have to it make it pencil out.” Girod questioned the issue of general obligation bonds for the state medical school rather than bonds that put OHSU’s liability at risk.

The bulk of the capital construction proposal would be for two new buildings on the Portland riverfront, one a 13-story, 300,000-square-foot tower for patient care and clinical trials at the base of the aerial tram and the other a nine-story, 309,000-square-foot science laboratory on the other side of the Ross Island Bridge at the OHSU Schnitzer Campus.

House Speaker Tina Kotek, D-Portland, who also chairs the committee tasked with vetting OHSU’s request, was skeptical that the hospital needed the new tower and more patient space for clinical trials. “I understand the need for clinical trial space,” she said. “I don’t necessarily buy into the fact that you need a new building for that.”

Kotek said that if OHSU continues to advance hospital reform, it should see fewer inpatient services, but Druker said if OHSU’s cancer research gains a greater national profile, the hospital will attract an influx of patients from out-of-state.

“As the research reach grows, so will its clinical reach,” Druker said. More than half of the patients at OHSU reside outside of the Portland metro area.

Sen. Richard Devlin, D-Tualatin, lamented that national politicians had shortchanged scientific research and development as a federal budget policy, but noted that Oregon, as a small state with its own limited budget, was already hard-pressed to expend the $21 million it does on science research each year -- one tenth the amount requested by OHSU.

“If you were approaching me just to do the research, I’m afraid I would have to tell you this state doesn’t have the resources to do research,” Devlin said, before noting he was more interested in the economic impact of a potential $1.5 billion of investments at OHSU and the Knight Cancer Institute.

Robertson said an economic impact study of the construction alone would generate 6,800 jobs and $892 million in economic activity, as well as recoup $35 million in tax dollars. The center would create 860 permanent jobs. “These are very good family-wage jobs and above,” he said.

If the bonds are approved, Druker said they could start recruiting scientists immediately. The architectural and laboratory design could begin this fall, and construction would start in the spring of 2016, with operations underway by the summer of 2018.

The Oregon Business Association has endorsed the project as well as union organizations such as the Oregon Building Trades Council and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 48. Dr. Bud Pierce came to support OHSU on behalf of the Oregon Medical Association. The senior Salem oncologist and past president of the OMA, Pierce said he and his wife had personally pledged $500,000 toward Knight’s challenge.

“It’s an opportunity of a lifetime for Oregon,” Pierce said. “I’m going to work another three or four years so I can meet my match.”

Chris can be reached at [email protected].

Image for this story by M.O. Stevens (public domain) via Wikimedia Commons.