The population of Texas is growing at a meteoric pace, severely straining the state’s healthcare system. As of the 2010 Census, Texas ranked 47^th out of 50 states in the number of primary care physicians per 100,000 inhabitants (70.0 per 100,000 as of the 2010 Census). This figure conceals an even worse reality for South Texas. Remove Bexar County (San Antonio) from regional physician counts, and the South Texas region is left with a rate of primary care physicians per capita nearly half again as worse (43 per 100,000) as the statewide figure. Furthermore, only 10% of physicians in Texas are Hispanic, while 40% of the overall population is so classified, making for inadequate cultural competency and poorer care outcomes.

The University of the Incarnate Word decided to tackle this serious and worsening problem by founding a new medical school. The new school’s osteopathic curriculum is based on the recommendations of the Carnegie Foundation’s Educating Physicians for the 21st Century report, which outlined four goals for medical education: standardization of learning outcomes and individualization of the learning process; integration of formal knowledge and clinical experience; development of habits of inquiry and innovation; and, focus on professional identity formation.

Where to locate this needed new institution? As chance would have it, an especially attractive facility to house the new school was on offer: the historic, recently-vacated campus of the former USAF School of Aerospace Medicine at the decommissioned Brooks Air Force Base. After successfully sourcing NMTC allocation and closing on two previous projects for the university, Crescent Growth Capital was hired again by UIW, this time to attempt a combined federal New Markets Tax Credit and Texas Historic Preservation Tax Credit financing to help fund the university’s School of Osteopathic Medicine.

In December, 2016, Crescent and UIW closed on a $6 milllion NMTC financing for the new medical school, utilizing allocation provided by Enhanced Capital and NMTC equity provided by Wells Fargo. Thirteen months later, Crescent delivered $1.65 million in Texas state historic tax credits to Enhanced Capital, having authored Parts A, B and C of the Texas Historic Preservation Tax Credit application and collaborated with the San Antonio Office of Historic Preservation to have the National Park Service certify SA OHP’s School of Aerospace Medicine local historic district. The completed rehabilitation restored the 1963 main building’s deleted courtyard entry on the south elevation and leveraged its mid-century modern design to create an appealing, contemporary home for the new school.

With its School of Osteopathic Medicine, the University of the Incarnate Word is now positioned to pursue its long-range goal of increasing the number of osteopathic physicians beginning their practice by at least 145 per year, helping to ameliorate the severe regional healthcare supply deficit. UIW will enroll 150 students per class, a significant share of whom will be Hispanic; graduates of the four-year program will receive the “Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine” degree (D.O.).