Topeka The Kansas University Medical School won re-accreditation despite concerns voiced by KU officials to legislators that lack of funding for a $75 million health education building could have jeopardized accreditation. Even so, the need for a new building remains a concern going forward, officials said.
KU announced Monday that it received full accreditation for the next eight years, which is the longest period possible.
But the schools accreditors, the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME), cited the school for noncompliance in two areas and said the school must show progress in six other areas by Aug. 1, 2015.
And one of those areas that the school must show progress in is improving its training facilities at the Kansas City, Kan., campus.
During the 2014 legislative session, KU officials have told legislators that without assistance in building a new $75 million health education building, the school faced accreditation problems.
On Monday, Douglas Girod, executive vice chancellor of the KU Medical Center, said the school was surprised it wasnt cited for an inadequate training building at the Kansas City campus after LCME visited the schools campuses in October 2013.
Based on comments from LCME visitors last fall, we anticipated a citation for lack of facilities appropriate for our curriculum, Girod said. We are fortunate they didnt issue a citation, but the accreditors made it clear this is an area that needs immediate attention.
The LCME said we are still in compliance, but that we need to fix the problem, Girod said. In August 2015, they wont be satisfied with were working on it. We need to show real progress on our building project in the next 17 months.
According to the LCME findings, students and faculty express dissatisfaction with the current state of facilities, including inadequate seating, particularly in the first-year lecture hall and the number of small-group classrooms that limit the schools ability to fully incorporate active learning on the Kansas City campus.
Girod said school officials are continuing discussions with Gov. Sam Brownback and the Legislature about the importance of the new building.
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KU Medical School wins accreditation; concern cited over main training building, diversity