MD Program
Accreditation
The Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine has preliminary accreditation
About medical school accreditation
The Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) governs allopathic medical schools in the U.S. The LCME requires licensee institutions to undergo a rigorous self-examination process. It ensures that each school has the infrastructure necessary to provide a quality education to students.
Before schools can begin recruiting students, they must earn preliminary LCME accreditation. After a nearly year-long process, the WSU Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine received preliminary accreditation on October 18, 2016.
The college is currently undergoing its provisional accreditation process in winter 2019. Following provisional accreditation, it must complete one more round of accreditation review before it is awarded full accreditation.
Office of Accreditation
The Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine’s Office of Accreditation oversees the medical school’s work to achieve and maintain LCME accreditation. The office is responsible for updating, maintaining and implementing the LCME Data Collection Instrument (DCI) and the Self Study document. It is charged with making sure the medical school is in continuous compliance with LCME standards while striving for excellence in medical education and patient care using standards based upon continuous quality leadership principles.
Officers
John Tomkowiak, MD, MOL
Founding Dean
john.tomkowiak@wsu.edu
509-358-7549 | PROFILE
Kenneth P. Roberts, PhD
Vice Dean for Academic and Community Partnerships
(Liaison to the LCME)
kenroberts@wsu.edu
509-358-7516 | PROFILE
James Zimmerman
Vice Dean of Administration, Accreditation and Finance
james.zimmerman@wsu.edu
509-368-6778 | PROFILE
Accreditation standards
Current LCME Data Collection Instrument (DCI) standards
The LCME sets forth 12 standards that a new medical school must meet.
| Current DCI | Next revision | Standards |
|---|---|---|
| December 2018 | Fall 2020 | Standard 1: Mission, Planning, Organization, and Integrity |
| December 2018 | Fall 2020 | Standard 2: Leadership and Administration |
| December 2018 | Fall 2020 | Standard 3: Academic and Learning Environments |
| December 2018 | Fall 2020 | Standard 4: Faculty Preparation, Productivity, Participation, and Policies |
| December 2018 | Fall 2020 | Standard 5: Educational Resources and Infrastructure |
| December 2018 | Fall 2020 | Standard 6: Competencies, Curricular Objectives, and Curricular Design |
| December 2018 | Fall 2020 | Standard 7: Curricular Content |
| December 2018 | Fall 2020 | Standard 8: Curricular Management, Evaluation, and Enhancement |
| December 2018 | Fall 2020 | Standard 9: Teaching, Supervision, Assessment, and Student and Patient Safety |
| December 2018 | Fall 2020 | Standard 10: Medical Student Selection, Assignment, and Progress |
| December 2018 | Fall 2020 | Standard 11: Medical Student Academic Support, Career Advising, and Educational Records |
| December 2018 | Fall 2020 | Standard 12: Medical Student Health Services, Personal Counseling, and Financial Aid Services |
Institutional self-study for preliminary accreditation
An institutional self‑study is a required component of the accreditation process. It identifies institutional strengths and develops plans to address areas of need.
The Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine united faculty, administrators, university leadership, legislators and staff, clinical affiliates, practicing clinicians, and community stakeholders to conduct an institutional self-study. It was conducted face-to-face, on all four of the WSU campuses (Spokane, Tri-Cities, Vancouver, and Everett) that are planned as the distributed regional clinical sites for the medical education program. The Office of Accreditation created a summary report (pdf) based on feedback from the self-study events.
Standards Based Continuous Quality Leadership (SBCQL) program
A medical school engages in ongoing planning and continuous quality improvement processes that establish short and long-term programmatic goals, result in the achievement of measurable outcomes that are used to improve programmatic quality, and ensure effective monitoring of the medical education program’s compliance with accreditation standards.
The Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine aims to build a lasting infrastructure of human talent, information technology and continuous quality improvement processes that work together to achieve excellence in medical education and patient care. Core customers are medical students and clinical patients.
SBCQL program goals
- Real time compliance status and performance trends
- Identification of opportunities to achieve excellence at reasonable cost
- Adverse trends always addressed using CQI methods Model for Improvement, LEAN, Six Sigma, etc.
- DCI documents always current and available
- LCME ASSET database always current
Strategic plan
Achieving accreditation is one component of the Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine strategic plan.