Not All Details Made Public. School Minimizes Significance.
The headline above appeared in two local news outlets yesterday and is exactly the kind of publicity the University of Louisville does not need. The story was broken by David Mann of Business First reacting to a news release from the University. In a subsequent interview, Medical School Dean Toni Ganzel outlined some nine areas of concern to the Liaison Committee On Medical Education (LCME) that oversees the accreditation of American Medical Schools. It is by no means clear that all identified problems or their severity have been made public.
As it is, the deficiencies that were identified are fundamental to the basic mission of a medical school: teaching facilities were inadequate, the method of teaching was behind the times, the curriculum needed review, evaluation of students was uneven without appropriate feedback to the students, cooperation among different medical and scientific disciplines was not sufficient, faculty integration with off-campus teaching sites was sub-optimal, and academic affiliations with hospitals were not clear. What else is there to go wrong?
I have always admired Dean Ganzel. She did not create this embarrassing problem, but she was left holding the bag, probably without the authority or the resources to fix it. Control of the Medical Center, including its clinical activities, rests in the President’s office. She obviously needs to minimize the damage and present the matter honestly and in the best possible light. She was effective to the point that the Courier-Journal printed a sub-headline quote: “I don’t think this decision is based on the overall quality of the educational experience.” A medical student volunteered that “she had a good experience.” Would a student have dared say anything else?
Not a big deal?
The school’s understandable impulse is to make it sound like this is no big deal, and that most of the remedies have already been made or are on track. This self-portrait is belied by the language used by the LCME itself.
“Accreditation with probation is an action based on determination by the LCME, … that an accredited program is not in substantial compliance with accreditation standards. Such a determination may be based on the LCME’s judgment, … that the areas of noncompliance have seriously compromised the quality of the medical education program, or that the program has failed to make satisfactory progress in achieving compliance after having been granted ample opportunity to do so.”
We do not yet know whether or not the University of Louisville’s Medical School was placed on probation because of serious compromise of quality, or because it did not make satisfactory progress after having had a chance to do so. Which possibility is worse? Continue reading “UofL Medical School On Academic Probation.”