The Virginia-based medical school trying to establish a residency program in Vero Beach did not get on Florida’s preferred medical school list during the 2026 regular legislative session, but its leaders hope owning a medical school campus in Vero Beach will boost its chances next year.

Dr. Matt Cannon, dean of students for the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine (VCOM) told Indian River County Hospital District Trustees in February that the State of Florida medical board has not made campus ownership a hard-and-fast requirement for being listed, but investing in real estate would demonstrate VCOM’s commitment to the Sunshine State.

VCOM has leased a three-story building and 5 acres of land at 1110 35th Court near the hospital for the past year and a half, in anticipation of opening a medical school here.

“They’re [now] very interested in buying the building and the associated parcel,” Hospital District Executive Director Frank Isele recently told district trustees, who directed him to get an updated appraisal of the circa-1987 property.

Two out-of-state medical schools have opened in Florida during the time VCOM has been angling to get on the list that opens doors to coveted residency slots and accreditation, one in Melbourne, the other in Jacksonville.

The Burrell College of Osteopathic Medicine linked up and co-located with Florida Institute of Technology and its established doctorate-level accreditation, while the Lincoln Memorial University-DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine got in by investing $36 million in a campus in the Jacksonville suburbs, and by bringing in a much-needed veterinary school to sweeten the pot.

VCOM already sends dozens of third- and fourth-year medical students each year to complete medical rotations in Vero at Cleveland Clinic Indian River Hospital and Treasure Coast Community Health. It was in the midst of planning a Vero Beach medical school and residency program when Florida adopted a massive healthcare reform bill called the Live Healthy Act in 2024.

The bill established an official list of preferred medical schools eligible for a limited number of medical residency slots and gave a board of representatives from established Florida medical schools control over doling out those slots. To move forward with establishing a residency program with Cleveland Clinic, VCOM needs to get on that list.

VCOM tried to gain a foothold by hiring lobbyist and former senate president Ken Pruitt to plead its case and pull strings in Tallahassee, and in February VCOM leaders still believed they had “a 50-50 chance” of getting an amendment tacked on to a healthcare related bill that would land them on the list.

Based upon the uncertainty at that time, the hospital district extended VCOM’s lease through mid-May, even though the medical school had failed to make a $1 million capital investment in the building by Oct. 1, as required by the terms of its lease. The Hospital District is set to revisit VCOM’s lease at its May 20 chairman’s meeting – unless VCOM makes an offer on the property first, triggering an earlier discussion.

Right now, VCOM is paying maintenance, utilities and taxes on the building but no rent. The last time the district rented the building to its prior tenant, the Visiting Nurse Association, it collected $22,000 per month.

VCOM wanted to purchase the three-story building plus five surrounding acres outright when it began talks with the hospital district in early 2023, but the district insisted on attaching strings and timelines to the deal.

The lease VCOM ended up with requires it to invest $5 million in the building over five years and increase its involvement in Vero Beach, leading up to operation of a four-year medical school plus residency program.

VCOM has 255 Florida students enrolled at its campuses in Blacksburg, Virginia, Spartanburg, South Carolina, Auburn, Alabama and Monroe, Louisiana, and has been sending upperclassmen to complete clinical rotations in Florida for two decades. Over the years, more than 400 Floridians have graduated from VCOM and gone on to practice medicine.

Cannon said that solid foundation should count for something with state regulators.

Cleveland Clinic Indian River Hospital and Treasure Coast Community Health together train nearly four dozen third- and fourth-year VCOM medical students.

But Cannon said the number of rotation slots needs to increase fourfold or more to at least 160 slots to make sure all of the students who will be studying at its Vero medical school, plus all the Floridians who want to return home for clinical rotations, can be trained here. Though Cleveland Clinic Indian River Hospital has fully committed to ramping up the VCOM training program, only so many students can train at Cleveland Clinic Indian River Hospital plus Vero’s Federally Qualified Health Clinics.

There just aren’t enough attending physicians willing and able to train students in one small county. Cannon said students will need to be spread out among Cleveland’s five and soon-to-be six hospitals in Florida.

The planned residency program, which would continue doctor training after medical school, would be separate from the clinical rotations.