A new medical school is starting construction in Poughkeepsie.

The Marist Health Quest School of Medicine will be built alongside Vassar Brothers Medical Center.

"It's really important that we create new medical schools because we know right now that we are about 100,000 physicians short," said Health Quest Chief Medical Operations Officer Dr. Glenn Loomis.   

The medical school is meant to fill the gap as baby boomer physicians retire, and the population grows. The hope is that residents who work here end up staying in-state. 

"We hope and plan that by five years from now, there will be over 250 residents working here and that they will want to stay and take care of people in the Hudson Valley," said Health Quest Graduate Medical Education Vice President Dr. Christopher Stenberg.

The School of Medicine would eventually host 480 medical students per year. Sen. Charles Schumer says the medical school, combined with pushing forward the Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act, is the key to keeping doctors in the region. Medicare helps fund hospitals to train residents, which would up the current amount.  

"We're going to make a push next year for 15,000 residency slots for Medicare. So when this hospital is built, and the people graduate from medical school and go to residency, there will be more slots if we can pass this bill to help them train for their residency," said Schumer.

If the legislation is passed, it would fund 3,000 extra residency slots every year from 2019 to 2023.