azskeptic
01-29-2004, 08:12 AM
http://www.ctnow.com/news/local/hc-spartan0129.artjan29,1,1990371.story?coll=hc-headlines-local
Hospitals, State Probing Caribbean Med School
January 29, 2004
By JACK DOLAN And ANDREW JULIEN, Courant Staff Writers
Three Connecticut hospitals may stop providing
hands-on training to students from a Caribbean medical
school whose graduates are banned from practicing in
six states.
The hospitals came under scrutiny last month when a
Courant investigation revealed Spartan Health Sciences
University's minimal entrance requirements and
bare-bones facilities. Its students are not even
allowed to train in hospitals on the school's home
island of St. Lucia.
State health commissioner Robert J. Galvin also said
he is willing to send state regulators to investigate
Spartan if no national body can be persuaded to take
on the task of inspecting off-shore medical schools.
Galvin said he launched his own probe into links
between Spartan and the Connecticut hospitals after
reading the Courant report.
St. Mary's Hospital in Waterbury, Griffin Hospital in
Derby and St. Raphael's in New Haven all have accepted
Spartan students for practical training on patients in
surgical and cancer departments, among others.
"I think we need to do something to assure the people
of Connecticut that anyone who comes to work in our
hospitals is properly educated and accredited," Galvin
said.
Spartan officials offered no comment for this story.
Galvin, who was recently appointed commissioner of the
Department of Public Health, said he expects the
hospitals will voluntarily stop accepting Spartan
trainees for clinical rotations until a team of
qualified investigators can determine whether the
school is "up to snuff."
Connecticut does not ban hospitals from training
students from any schools, nor does it ban graduates
of any specific schools from practicing.
Unlike medical residents, who have graduated from
medical school and are licensed physicians who work
for relatively low pay in exchange for specialized
training, students on clinical rotations are generally
in their third or fourth year of medical school. They
do physicals, take patient histories and perform minor
procedures under the supervision of a resident.
William Powanda, a spokesman for Griffin Hospital,
said the hospital is reviewing its relationship with
Spartan as part of a broader look at Griffin's medical
education program.
Powanda stopped short of saying that Griffin had
suspended the practice of accepting Spartan students
while the review is underway, but said that students
from other schools would be given priority for
acceptance.
There are no students from Spartan currently at
Griffin, he said.
"It's kind of a broad review that's looking at the
entire student program and discretely at the
relationship with Spartan as well," Powanda said.
"While that process is in place, we are choosing to
accept students from schools other than Spartan right
now."
Galvin's interest has sparked a similar review at St.
Raphael's and St. Mary's, hospital officials said.
Currently, there is no national organization that
systematically assesses the quality of foreign medical
schools. For licensing purposes, many states,
including Connecticut, rely on a directory of
international schools published by the World Health
Organization in Geneva.
That directory, however, is little more than a listing
of medical schools that are recognized by the country
in which they are located. Even the authors of the WHO
list warn against relying too heavily on their
directory for quality assurance, pointing out at the
beginning of the guide that they do not formally
recognize or accredit the schools.
Some states, such as New York and California, have
their own teams of inspectors for off-shore schools.
But those states are such desirable destinations for
the mostly American students that the schools are
generally willing to foot the bill for their own
inspections in the hope of gaining approval.
Smaller states don't have that kind of economic clout.
That's why a group like the Federation of State
Medical Boards, a trade organization based in Texas
that represents state officials who issue medical
licenses, would be a logical body to assume the task
of inspecting foreign schools, Galvin said.
While FSMB officials acknowledge that a national
standard for evaluating foreign medical schools would
be valuable, executive director Jim Thompson said his
organization is ill-equipped to do the job.
"Accrediting a medical school is not a simple
process," Thompson said. "When U.S. schools are
accredited, a team of five people descends on them for
five days and reviews stacks of documents 24 inches
high."
Thompson acknowledged that five people would start
bumping into each other after five minutes during an
inspection of Spartan, which consisted of a single
building with four classrooms, one lab and three
cadavers when The Courant visited last October.
But even the apparent simplicity of inspecting such a
small school would create its own set of bureaucratic
obstacles.
"In that case, what information would somebody want to
have from these schools?" Thompson asked. "Are you
going to have to lower the standard for international
schools?"
Even if no national system for approving international
schools is established, the concerns about Spartan and
its connections to Connecticut hospitals are such that
Galvin would be willing to send his own investigators
to St. Lucia to inspect the school.
"I'm of the opinion that somebody should take a close
look at this place," Galvin said.
Failing that, the health department could insist that
all hospitals follow the lead of the UConn Medical
Center, which trains students only from schools in
North America that have been approved by the American
Academy of Medical Colleges.
But smaller hospitals such as St. Mary's and Griffin,
which are not part of an established medical school or
located in a major city, have a hard time attracting
students from U.S. and Canadian medical schools. For
them, access to international students is critical to
their goals of achieving the prestige, and economic
benefits, associated with being a teaching hospital.
Hospitals, State Probing Caribbean Med School
January 29, 2004
By JACK DOLAN And ANDREW JULIEN, Courant Staff Writers
Three Connecticut hospitals may stop providing
hands-on training to students from a Caribbean medical
school whose graduates are banned from practicing in
six states.
The hospitals came under scrutiny last month when a
Courant investigation revealed Spartan Health Sciences
University's minimal entrance requirements and
bare-bones facilities. Its students are not even
allowed to train in hospitals on the school's home
island of St. Lucia.
State health commissioner Robert J. Galvin also said
he is willing to send state regulators to investigate
Spartan if no national body can be persuaded to take
on the task of inspecting off-shore medical schools.
Galvin said he launched his own probe into links
between Spartan and the Connecticut hospitals after
reading the Courant report.
St. Mary's Hospital in Waterbury, Griffin Hospital in
Derby and St. Raphael's in New Haven all have accepted
Spartan students for practical training on patients in
surgical and cancer departments, among others.
"I think we need to do something to assure the people
of Connecticut that anyone who comes to work in our
hospitals is properly educated and accredited," Galvin
said.
Spartan officials offered no comment for this story.
Galvin, who was recently appointed commissioner of the
Department of Public Health, said he expects the
hospitals will voluntarily stop accepting Spartan
trainees for clinical rotations until a team of
qualified investigators can determine whether the
school is "up to snuff."
Connecticut does not ban hospitals from training
students from any schools, nor does it ban graduates
of any specific schools from practicing.
Unlike medical residents, who have graduated from
medical school and are licensed physicians who work
for relatively low pay in exchange for specialized
training, students on clinical rotations are generally
in their third or fourth year of medical school. They
do physicals, take patient histories and perform minor
procedures under the supervision of a resident.
William Powanda, a spokesman for Griffin Hospital,
said the hospital is reviewing its relationship with
Spartan as part of a broader look at Griffin's medical
education program.
Powanda stopped short of saying that Griffin had
suspended the practice of accepting Spartan students
while the review is underway, but said that students
from other schools would be given priority for
acceptance.
There are no students from Spartan currently at
Griffin, he said.
"It's kind of a broad review that's looking at the
entire student program and discretely at the
relationship with Spartan as well," Powanda said.
"While that process is in place, we are choosing to
accept students from schools other than Spartan right
now."
Galvin's interest has sparked a similar review at St.
Raphael's and St. Mary's, hospital officials said.
Currently, there is no national organization that
systematically assesses the quality of foreign medical
schools. For licensing purposes, many states,
including Connecticut, rely on a directory of
international schools published by the World Health
Organization in Geneva.
That directory, however, is little more than a listing
of medical schools that are recognized by the country
in which they are located. Even the authors of the WHO
list warn against relying too heavily on their
directory for quality assurance, pointing out at the
beginning of the guide that they do not formally
recognize or accredit the schools.
Some states, such as New York and California, have
their own teams of inspectors for off-shore schools.
But those states are such desirable destinations for
the mostly American students that the schools are
generally willing to foot the bill for their own
inspections in the hope of gaining approval.
Smaller states don't have that kind of economic clout.
That's why a group like the Federation of State
Medical Boards, a trade organization based in Texas
that represents state officials who issue medical
licenses, would be a logical body to assume the task
of inspecting foreign schools, Galvin said.
While FSMB officials acknowledge that a national
standard for evaluating foreign medical schools would
be valuable, executive director Jim Thompson said his
organization is ill-equipped to do the job.
"Accrediting a medical school is not a simple
process," Thompson said. "When U.S. schools are
accredited, a team of five people descends on them for
five days and reviews stacks of documents 24 inches
high."
Thompson acknowledged that five people would start
bumping into each other after five minutes during an
inspection of Spartan, which consisted of a single
building with four classrooms, one lab and three
cadavers when The Courant visited last October.
But even the apparent simplicity of inspecting such a
small school would create its own set of bureaucratic
obstacles.
"In that case, what information would somebody want to
have from these schools?" Thompson asked. "Are you
going to have to lower the standard for international
schools?"
Even if no national system for approving international
schools is established, the concerns about Spartan and
its connections to Connecticut hospitals are such that
Galvin would be willing to send his own investigators
to St. Lucia to inspect the school.
"I'm of the opinion that somebody should take a close
look at this place," Galvin said.
Failing that, the health department could insist that
all hospitals follow the lead of the UConn Medical
Center, which trains students only from schools in
North America that have been approved by the American
Academy of Medical Colleges.
But smaller hospitals such as St. Mary's and Griffin,
which are not part of an established medical school or
located in a major city, have a hard time attracting
students from U.S. and Canadian medical schools. For
them, access to international students is critical to
their goals of achieving the prestige, and economic
benefits, associated with being a teaching hospital.