LCME Update

This week we submitted all of our LCME documentation (the faculty and student self-studies, databases for each of the 12 standards, and all of the appendices), a major milestone in our eight-year accreditation process. Many thanks to Deborah Vaughan, PhD, our Faculty Accreditation Lead, for shepherding this extensive process to date.

We now are preparing for the penultimate milestone, the practice site visit on Dec. 16-18 with three experienced site visitors from other schools of medicine. Faculty, staff and students will all be participating. Our practice site visitors’ feedback will guide any final modifications in our policies or practices in preparation for the actual LCME site visit, Feb. 24-27, 2019.

Our preparation began in 2016 with revisions of our strategic plan, ultimately approved by the Executive Committee in January 2017. LCME databases were populated by the various deans and administrative units followed in September 2017 with the creation of five subcommittees to write focused self-studies of all aspects of our academic environment, and a separate independent students’ study based on a survey of their classmates. The Task Force, a broad-based committee of stakeholders chaired by Dr. Tom Moore, used the Independent Student Analysis, the databases and appendices to create a comprehensive 35-page Self-Study report.

Throughout this process, we’ve affirmed many of our strengths, including the commitment to our mission, strong academic program and leadership teams, responsiveness to student input, faculty development, and solid fiscal stewardship in a financially-constrained environment.

We’ve also have made important investments including:

  • improved clarity of our medical education learning objectives;
  • strengthened processes around curriculum evaluation, student assessment, and career advising;
  • creation of student study and relaxation space and improved facets of student wellness;
  • improved monitoring and quality improvement of all aspects of our educational environment.

The protracted process of preparation has involved many students, faculty and staff. Many thanks for all of your involvement in this process as we continue our commitment to teach, learn and discover on the frontlines of medicine.

For more detailed information, visit our LCME accreditation webpages.