BANGOR – Officials at Eastern Maine Medical Center announced this week plans to construct a 3,800-square-foot, 17-bedroom residence for medical students.

The two-story structure will be located on Spruce Street, across from the hospital’s Hancock Street entrance. Groundbreaking is scheduled for July 1, and the facility is expected to be ready for occupancy in the spring of 2005.

Medical students at the hospital are currently housed in an older wing of the original 19th century structure, known as the Domestic Building because it was used as a dormitory for housekeepers, cooks and other staff.

The rooms are cramped and dated, said Alan Boone, director of medical education, and the area lacks common space for socializing, conferring and studying. There are also only 11 rooms; additional students are put up at area motels.

Though the students are universally satisfied with the clinical grounding they receive at EMMC, Boone said they often cite their living quarters as a low point.

It’s time to invest in the hospital’s status as a teaching facility, Boone said – an investment he says will attract more students and pay off in more ways than one.

“This hospital has been involved with medical education since its founding,” said Boone. At any given time during the year, he said, there are about 20 third-year medical students, mostly from Tufts University School of Medicine and the University of New England’s College of Osteopathic Medicine, fulfilling their clinical obligations.

Through formal agreements with their schools, most students are on the EMMC campus for six to 12 weeks.

In addition, EMMC’s family practice residency program attracts about 25 residents who treat thousands of Bangor-area residents each year. These recent medical school graduates are usually required to complete a three- or four-year term of supervised patient care before they may practice independently.

EMMC also serves as a resource for currently licensed physicians who must complete about 100 hours of professional education every two years in order to stay licensed in Maine.

And the hospital offers University of Maine undergraduate students considering a medical career an opportunity to “shadow” doctors on their rounds, getting a glimpse of the high-stress, high-reward environment of a major hospital.

Through EMMC’s professional educational program, all these learners can meet their needs through hands-on clinical work, lectures, case presentations, conferences and access to research materials, according to Boone. But the benefit does not accrue only to the students.

“The spirit of a teaching hospital can permeate the entire institution,” Boone said Wednesday. The presence of students encourages openness to new ideas and practices and brings fresh thinking into the medical environment, he said.

High-quality practitioners and researchers are attracted to communities served by such institutions, and Bangor – “far away and not on the road to anywhere” – should be proud of EMMC’s relationship with major educational institutions.

Ultimately, Boone hopes enhancing the hospital’s status and attracting more medical students will “feed” the family practice program, which in turn will encourage more full-fledged doctors to settle in the hospital’s service area.

Historically, about 40 percent of the family practice residents came to EMMC first as third-year students, and 60 percent of the doctors who finish their residencies here have stayed in Maine, though not necessarily in the Bangor area.

The Spruce Street residence will be available only to medical students who come to EMMC by arrangement with their schools. Boone said there are no plans to make them available to anyone else. With few exceptions, he said, all rooms should be filled year-round.

Some of the rooms currently used in the Domestic Building will be remodeled to provide additional student housing.

The cost of the new residence is expected to be about $500,000. Funding is nearly complete and includes donations from medical schools, the EMMC medical staff and local businesses as well as awards from private foundations.

Eastern Maine Charities, a branch of the Eastern Maine Healthcare System, has provided $200,000.

The building is designed by Eddington architect David R. Merritt. Construction has been awarded to the Bangor firm of Perry and Morrill.