{"id":3007,"date":"2014-04-26T15:12:18","date_gmt":"2014-04-26T19:12:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.khpi.org\/blog\/?p=3007"},"modified":"2014-04-26T15:41:55","modified_gmt":"2014-04-26T19:41:55","slug":"status-of-uofl-medical-school-probation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.khpi.org\/blog\/status-of-uofl-medical-school-probation\/","title":{"rendered":"Status of UofL Medical School Probation Story."},"content":{"rendered":"

Still Gathering Information.<\/span><\/p>\n

Last month, the University of Louisville School of Medicine was\u00a0placed on probation<\/a> by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME), its accrediting\u00a0organization. This was an embarrassing piece of bad news for the University, but one which in my opinion flowed inevitably from an overemphasis on the commercial research, real-estate development, and entertainment sports enterprises of the larger\u00a0University at the expense of its traditional educational and training missions.<\/p>\n

One of the several principal factors leading to the adverse decision by the LCME was that the educational facilities of the Medical School are inadequate. This is\u00a0hard to deny. One look at the Health Sciences Campus (or the Belknap Campus for that matter) shows where\u00a0the University’s priorities actually lie. \u00a0 Renovations of the existing medical educational space are now underway. \u00a0The recent Kentucky legislative session<\/a> awarded state funding\u00a0for a\u00a0new instructional building on the Belknap campus which\u00a0was the University’s highest priority. \u00a0State funding for a new instructional building for the Health Science Campus was denied. State funding for a medical instructional building was not included in President Ramsey’s short list of UfoL’s general legislative priorities, even though the University already knew the LCME axe was falling. What was requested included\u00a0a Belknap instruction building, more\u00a0“Bucks-for-Brains” research funding, and restoration of funding for the QCCT indigent medical care program. \u00a0 Paradoxically, the University was permitted to allocate its own funds for a new private practice clinical building along with other construction and renovation projects. It submitted plans to build\u00a0\u00a04 additional research buildings\u00a0over the subsequent\u00a04 years. To me that says it all!<\/p>\n

I am optimistic that\u00a0the Medical School will succeed.<\/strong>
\nI do not believe the LCME will close the medical school. \u00a0I believe the leadership of the School of Medicine is\u00a0addressing the issues in an honest and forthright way. I remain\u00a0concerned however, that\u00a0Medical School will be not be given access to the financial resources necessary to do the job, nor sufficient influence over\u00a0of the new clinical\u00a0organization of University\u00a0Medical Center to give our educational and training programs the priority they deserve. One would like to think that the Dean of the School of Medicine\u00a0would have sufficient influence over the school’s\u00a0faculty, but historically, at least the clinical faculty has\u00a0enjoyed unique independence from the Dean’s office. \u00a0Much of the Medical School’s current research activities operate in seperate institutes or spin-offs outside of a\u00a0traditional medical school academic organization. From my perspective, all the major calls about clinical and research operations, and many about education and training are being made from the Office of the University President.<\/p>\n

Without accreditation, there is no academic medical center.<\/strong>
\nMany of the clauses in the Affiliation and Operating Agreements\u00a0between the Universiy and KentuckyOne Health hinge on UofL\u00a0retaining\u00a0accreditation of its Medical School and training programs. \u00a0Clearly some of these are in jeopardy. (Some residency training programs have had their own accreditation warnings or withdrawal\u00a0\u00a0in recent years.) \u00a0I have not been able to identify a single\u00a0person who can confirm that any of the untold millions of financial and academic support promised to UofL by CHI and KentuckyOne Health have ever been transferred, nor have I seen any planned allocation of how that money was going to be used. Perhaps if\u00a0there is even a single thread of golden lining in this kick-in-the-pants by the LCME, it is that the leadership of the University and Academic Medical Center have been put on notice that its\u00a0current organization, style, and priorities have failed the University’s\u00a0primary mission\u2013 to educate Kentucky’s citizens. \u00a0No amount of public-relations spin, stonewalling, or golden parachutes are\u00a0going to make this one go away. \u00a0I and all of you should be watching to see just what is going to be done differently. The status quo has proven a failure.<\/p>\n

Information is forthcoming.<\/strong>
\nI had to file\u00a0a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain copies of the LCME survey report and attendant correspondence, along with any other materials the School of Medicine thought would enable me to report accurately and fairly on the matter of its probation. \u00a0I received the four documents available below consisting of a portion of the site visit report ( but without the appendices that\u00a0include student and faculty survey results), a letter indicating\u00a0an intention to appeal an earlier\u00a0notice of\u00a0probation,\u00a0the full appeal by the medical school, and a\u00a0final letter to President Ramsey indicating\u00a0that the decision to place the school on probation was upheld and final.<\/p>\n

It’s not all bad.<\/strong>
\nI have not completed my own review of the materials and it\u00a0is my intention to review in person the additional voluminous materials not yet provided. It is obvious that there are many\u00a0good things going on at the Medical School that it can be proud of. \u00a0It wants to, and undoubtedly can do even better. \u00a0Its students think they are\u00a0getting a reasonable education, but outside educational experts think they deserve more. \u00a0In the meantime, the\u00a0documents below are in the public\u00a0domain. \u00a0Readers can now begin to draw their own conclusions and become better prepared to both\u00a0advocate for the Medical School\u00a0and to monitor\u00a0the changes that must\u00a0come.<\/p>\n

Peter Hasselbacher, MD
\nPresident, KHPI
\nEmeritus Professor of Medicine, UofL
\nApril 26, 2014<\/p>\n

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LCME Documents
\n<\/strong>Report of\u00a0Team on Site-visit of April 14-17, 2013. \u00a0(32 MB PDF)<\/a>
\nLetter of Intent to Appeal Decision, Nov 7, 2003. \u00a0\u00a0(1.1 MB PDF)<\/a>
\nFormal Letter of Appeal, Jan 28, 2014. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0(3.4 MB PDF)<\/a>
\nNotification of Probation, Mar 13, 2014. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (1.7 MB PDF)<\/a><\/p>\n

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