GREENSBURG — An Erie-based medical school plans to open a branch campus at Seton Hill University.

Pierre Belicini, a spokesman for the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine, says the branch campus will open by fall 2009 and offer training for up to 400 medical students through Excela Health. Seton Hill is a private, Catholic university in Greensburg.

Excela owns three Westmoreland County hospitals and is negotiating to buy a fourth, Mercy Jeannette Hospital.

Belicini says Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine has more than 1,500 students in Erie and a second campus in Bradenton, Fla.