Temple Med on Probation

[group_theory]

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/2003/02/08/business/5133955.htm

Posted on Sat, Feb. 08, 2003

Probation for Temple med school
It lost an appeal of a decision that had cited aging facilities.
By Josh Goldstein
Inquirer Staff Writer

Temple University School of Medicine disclosed yesterday that its accreditation status has been changed to probationary by the group that oversees the quality of the nation's medical schools.

Earlier in the week, the Liaison Committee on Medical Education denied Temple's appeal of a June decision to put the school on probation due to concerns about the North Philadelphia medical school's aging teaching and study facilities, as well as student financial-aid issues, Temple said.

Most state medical boards require that medical schools be accredited for graduates to get a license to practice medicine. Also, accreditation is important for students because it makes them eligible for federal student loan programs.

While Temple's medical school remains fully accredited, it will be under greater scrutiny during the probation and must fix the problems within four years or risk losing accreditation.

Temple is one of five medical schools in Philadelphia.

John M. Daly, who became the Temple medical school dean in November, said that the school had already made great strides to address the problems and that fundamental medical education provided to Temple students remained at the highest caliber.

"I graduated from Temple as a medical student nearly 30 years ago," Daly said yesterday. "I came back to Temple as the dean because I recognize that the same culture of excellence in education and teaching... . The dedication of the faculty to the medical students is as great now as it was 30 years ago."

Daly said that, since the liaison committee inspected the school in March, progress has been made toward improving classrooms and library spaces as well as raising money for scholarships to reduce the debt burden of Temple medical students.

In addition, Temple has added sophisticated research laboratories. Last month, the school's board of trustees authorized a $75 million bond issue to support construction of a building to house the medical school.

"The replacement of the medical school's aging facilities is the university's number-one capital priority," university president David Adamany said in a statement.

Adamany and Daly praised the quality of education that Temple medical students get. The two said they have been addressing the infrastructure and scholarship issues for months.

"We have made tremendous progress, and will continue to make more progress" to address the problems raised by the liaison committee, Daly said.

He said the school would invite the group back for a site visit within a year. In the meantime, "we have the opportunity to make further renovations in classrooms to increase electronic access to library facilities and other improvements," he said.

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[Deuce 007 MD]

Looks like I won't be sending them my $100.00 deposit any time soon. They had some really good radiology electives that you could take during first and second year though.

 

[Adcadet]

if the major problem is the facilities, and the school is working very hard to fix that (which seem relatively fixable), I wouldn't be surprized if Temple comes out of this little mess pretty well. I know the university I'm at, Minnesota (including the medical school), had some major issues with conflict of interest, and because of that, the U of MN is a national model for managing conflict of interest issues.

Now how to reduce student debt, that seems tougher. You can always throw money around for nice facilities, but this doesn't solve the cost of tuition issue....it would probably make it worse.

 

[phllystyl]

It is primarily a facilities issue, according to our dean, who we met with on Monday concerning this.

Temple has already begun rennovations on all of their existing space to improve student study space. They have also just received the funding from PA and the university to construct a $150 million NEW medical school. I've seen the floor plans for this facility, it is fantastic. It is slated for completion in 2007. From what Ive seen of the rennovations of the current facilities, they do increase study space.

With regards to student indebtedness, Temple is vigorously restructuring some things and campaigning to bring this down. This contention was something Temple strongly opposed in the appealate process. Temple is one of the cheaper schools in Philadelphia and has had the lowest rate of tuition increase amongst allopathic schools in the past 5 yrs in Philadelphia. Also, Temple is planning to reduce incoming class sizes to ~180 or slightly lower in order to increase the amount of funding available for each student. The new building will have absolutely no impact on student tuition. Keep in mind that student indebtedness is an issue many places these days.

Lastly, with regards to the match, this is not something that is going to have a negative impact on the match process. Dr Daly has already begun contacting residency programs and informing them of the nature of the situation. Given that this is primarily a facilities based issue, it does not reflect poorly at all in the quality of the students or their education. USMLE averages continue to mimick national averages, and there have been several positive rearrangements in courses recently. Other residency programs are well aware of the context of this situation.

With everything that has been done since March 2002 when these issues where raised by the LCME and the continuing quest to improve the facilities, Dr. Daly anticipates that this probationary status will be lifted at it's review phase in November. They are making a considerable effort, and that is all the committee wants. It is still a great medical school, one that I am extremely proud to be a part of with a great tradition in helping underserved populations and clinical training.

 

[bridgie]

That kind of freaks me out. I am on the continued candidates list there, i interviewed back in Oct. and I honestly saw no discrepency between Temple or say GW's micro lab, which was pretty archaic....a med school can go on probation becasue their classrooms look crappy? I dont' get it.

 

[samenewme]

Don't set too much credence in this, but certainly one of the benefits of accreditation is that accreditors can force the parent institution to put more money into a program that needs a boost. A library I worked in in Georgia had to nearly double its staff after the accreditors came through.

Accreditation is interesting in the generic sense. You spend a lot of time doing a self-study, and after a visit you submit a plan of action on how to remedy any deficiencies they found. They always find some, even if you get full accreditation. One way you can get on probation is by not completing your plans for remediation from your previous review. I don't know at all if that's what happened at Temple; I'm just speculating. Anything can happen, depending on what's in the self-study, what the accreditors find on the site visit, and what faculty and students say when interviewed.

Anyway, it would seem to me that in a program with good faculty, good students, and a good administration, a little kick in the behind from the accreditors can be just the thing they need to get the additional resources they need to do the best job possible. Probation is not the end of the world.

Just my opinion.

 

[xaelia]

A couple years back Stanford came within one vote of being placed on probation for their aging facilities as well.

Obviously, plenty of good folks still go to Stanford and come out good doctors...and their library and study spaces are still awful.