Mercy Southeast and Mercy Stoddard will host clinical rotations for LECOM medical students in an upcoming school year. LECOM is the nation’s largest medical college with a flagship campus in Erie, Pennsylvania. It opened its first Midwest regional campus in June 2024 at Mercy Hospital Jefferson in Festus, Missouri. LECOM will also team up with SEMO to help students navigate advanced medical education.

“Mercy Southeast is thrilled to join LECOM and SEMO in attracting medical students to Cape Girardeau,” said Dr. Naresh Agarwal, Mercy Southeast chief medical officer. “This expansion lays the foundation for Mercy Southeast to serve as a regional teaching hospital and become a center of excellence, delivering high-quality, compassionate care to our Southeast community while also attracting top-tier physicians.”

In addition to choosing Mercy Jefferson and Mercy Southeast for their shared mission and values, LECOM intentionally sought out non-urban settings like Cape Girardeau. The more rural a community and the more rural patients a hospital serves, the more support it needs to sustain health care resources. Medical students often grow to love the communities they train in after several years in the same area. Once students become physicians, they frequently choose to stay in the community where they trained and have established roots.

About 70% of LECOM graduates become primary care physicians, who are much needed in Southeast Missouri to increase patient access to good health maintenance and prevent the need for hospital care. Both are particularly important in rural areas with fewer health care options.

“Expanding to Cape Girardeau just makes sense,” said Dr. Karthik Iyer, Mercy Jefferson chief medical officer and LECOM regional dean. “Mercy Southeast is about an hour away from our campus at Mercy Jefferson, allowing for easy collaboration between our two hospitals. We see a tremendous opportunity to increase access to higher education for residents in the area with this expansion with LECOM and now Southeast Missouri State University. The chance to serve as faculty in a community teaching hospital is a big draw for many physicians. It has already helped us recruit additional physicians to Mercy Jefferson, which has been a huge win for the entire community.”

The extension of LECOM to Cape Girardeau includes the school’s Early Acceptance Program. Through this program, LECOM will partner with SEMO to identify potential medical school candidates and guide them in earning an advanced degree.

The Early Acceptance Program enables students to apply for a seat at LECOM at the same time they apply to SEMO. An established number of qualified students will receive early acceptance to LECOM’s College of Osteopathic Medicine, School of Pharmacy, School of Dental Medicine or School of Podiatric Medicine through SEMO. SEMO students can start the professional program before they have completed their bachelor’s degree.

“Biology is SEMO’s second-largest major, with many students earning their bachelor’s degree here before going on to medical school,” said Dr. Carlos Vargas, SEMO President. “SEMO is thrilled to offer this opportunity for our students to have early acceptance at LECOM and then to train in Cape at Mercy Southeast. We are proud to work with both of these impressive partners to address physician needs in our region.”

LECOM seeks to assist applicants who are the first in their family to enter higher education. It offers one of the lowest tuition fees in the nation for private medical colleges and provides financial aid to 89% of its students.

LECOM also educates future pharmacists, dentists and podiatrists. LECOM and Mercy plan to continue to develop the expanded program over the years with an eventual goal of establishing residency programs at Mercy Southeast.