Southwestern College Thursday opened a new building in National City for its medical assistant program.
The two-story Plaza Building is at the Higher Education Center satellite campus. It features four science labs, a medical assisting clinic, a large lecture hall and a community room.
The new building will allow the college to expand its medical assistant training program in National City with anatomy, physiology, chemistry and microbiology labs at the satellite campus, the college said.
"Inside the medical assisting clinic, students get the full experience of becoming a medical assistant, including simulated waiting rooms and simulated clinical exercises and practices," the college said.
The project was funded by the college's $389 million Proposition R bond approved by South Bay voters in 2008. That bond is also being used for construction and updates at the Chula Vista campus and the higher education centers in Otay Mesa and San Ysidro, according to the college.
The college's medical assistant program offers certificates in billing and coding, administration and clinical and an associate's degree.
