Accreditation

THE ELSON S. FLOYD COLLEGE OF MEDICINE HAS FULL 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. The LCME granted full accreditation to WSU College of Medicine after conducting an extensive virtual site visit in October 2020 and evaluating the College of Medicine’s progress in meeting the LCME’s rigorous standards.

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

Accreditation Standards

Current LCME Data Collection Instrument (DCI) Standards

The LCME sets forth 12 standards that a new medical school must meet.

CURRENT DCI	STANDARDS
April 2020	Standard 1: Mission, Planning, Organization, and Integrity
April 2020	Standard 2: Leadership and Administration
April 2020	Standard 3: Academic and Learning Environments
April 2020	Standard 4: Faculty Preparation, Productivity, Participation, and Policies
April 2020	Standard 5: Educational Resources and Infrastructure
April 2020	Standard 6: Competencies, Curricular Objectives, and Curricular Design
April 2020	Standard 7: Curricular Content
April 2020	Standard 8: Curricular Management, Evaluation, and Enhancement
April 2020	Standard 9: Teaching, Supervision, Assessment, and Student and Patient Safety
April 2020	Standard 10: Medical Student Selection, Assignment, and Progress
April 2020	Standard 11: Medical Student Academic Support, Career Advising, and Educational Records
April 2020	Standard 12: Medical Student Health Services, Personal Counseling, and Financial Aid Services

Timeline

• Preliminary status: 2016
• Provisional status: June 2019
• Full Accreditation status: June 2021

Institutional Self-Study For Provisional 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). The Office of Accreditation created a summary report (pdf) based on feedback from the self-study events. A new study will be launched in the fall of 2019 to support full accreditation activities.

Independent Student Analysis – ISA

The ISA is part of the self-study and accreditation processes for the Liaison Committee for Medical Education (LCME). The ISA provides an opportunity for students to objectively and independently evaluate, commend, and critique the medical education program for Accreditation by the LCME. The statements and the data collected provide a foundation on which to gauge the perspectives of the student body at our College of Medicine.

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.