Author: P Hasselbacher

Oct 15, 2015; 11:45 AM

Good News!
The University of Louisville School of Medicine has just received the good news for which it has worked hard over the past two years.  Its probationary status is said to have been lifted by the LCME.  The Liaison Committee for Medical Education (LCME) is a joint endeavor of the American Medical Association and the Association of American Medical Colleges that accredits North American Medical Schools.

In my view,  the LCME made a needed wake-up call to the University Administration that put educational maters back on track again. In its emphasis on its commercial research agenda, UofL has allowed its educational priorities to receed.  In that respect, although the experience was both painful and embarrassing for all of us, we are now entering a better place.  As pointed out in yesterday’s article, the LCME will likely to have concluded that a few items still require monitoring.  This is not a time to relax or withhold resources. We need to make sure our momentum is not lost.

I will update this article as I learn more.

[It’s official.  Although the status listing on the LCME website had not yet changed as of the writing above, by this afternoon UofL is listed as being fully accredited.]

Peter Hasselbacher, MD
Emeritus Professor of Medicine

The Liaison Committee on Medical Education is currently meeting through October 15th. On their agenda is what to do about the report of the ad hoc survey team that visited the medical school last May to follow up on the deficiencies of the full review in 2013 that lead to the school being placed on probation. Through an open-records request, I obtained a copy of the survey team’s report. To me, It looks quite favorable. Obviously, being placed on probation lit a fire under the powers that be. Although the report makes it clear that the LCME “may come to different conclusions when it reviews the team’s report and any related information,” I will be frankly surprised if probation is not lifted. As a result of the full site visit in April 2013, a total of 19 standards were found to be deficient in some way. Nine standards were unequivocally noncompliant, and an additional 10 were judged to require monitoring. A few of the deficiencies were embarrassingly bad by any standard. The current follow-up survey team did not declare any standard to be in a state of noncompliance, but did recommend that four required further monitoring. Continue reading “Decision on Lifting of UofL Medical School Probation Imminent.”

Joe Gerth is reporting several block-buster announcements in today’s  on-line Courier-Journal regarding the UofL Board of Trustees.

1. Kentucky Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Jack Conway has apparently announced the opinion of his office that Governor Beshear “broke the law” in not re-appointing an African- American to the UofL Board of Trustees.
2. Newly appointed Trustee Paul Diaz counts as a “minority,” but that the Board is still unbalanced. The proper standard is not yet announced.
3. Established Board member Steve Wilson has resigned.
4. Governor Beshear says he will appoint an African-American to replace Mr. Wilson.

As of this writing, this is still breaking news. I found no confirmation of any of this on the Attorney General’s or Governor’s official websites and I have no independent verification of any of the reported facts.   Indeed, specifics are still changing as of late this afternoon as to what would or should be considered a proper balance of race on the UofL Board – specifically whether a statewide or local standard should be considered.  Nonetheless, the situation presenting itself is one of the two possible solutions to a difficult solution that I proposed earlier this month.

[Addendum 9-30-2015: Several documents and responses became available confirming the above. Links to these are at the end of this article. Based on the relevant statutes, I come to different conclusions than the Attorney General and Governor and will discuss these further in future post.]

There will be much more said about this in coming days by many, but I offer the following comments at this time. Continue reading “Big  Changes Coming For University of Louisville Board of Trustees.”