The source of our problems? Comittee for Osteopathic College Accreditation (COCA)

[CatsandCradles]

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So I was reading the other post titled: "Yep another DO school"

And decided to try to find out what agency accredits a new school. If I am not wrong, I think the link below sheds a bit of light on this issue.

http://www.osteopathic.org/pdf/acc_predocnwsltrwinter05.pdf

Here's their little pdf document to discuss about.

I haven't read the entire document, but am currently considering to write them. Do you want that Colorado school opening when it's parent institution is in the Dominican Republic? This makes me concerned. This new school is akin to saying that DOs are inferior to Carribean school.

Well, what do you guys think?

 

[DragonWell]

So I was reading the other post titled: "Yep another DO school"

And decided to try to find out what agency accredits a new school. If I am not wrong, I think the link below sheds a bit of light on this issue.

http://www.osteopathic.org/pdf/acc_predocnwsltrwinter05.pdf

Here's their little pdf document to discuss about.

I haven't read the entire document, but am currently considering to write them. Do you want that Colorado school opening when it's parent institution is in the Dominican Republic? This makes me concerned. This new school is akin to saying that DOs are inferior to Carribean school.

Well, what do you guys think?

I think I love that "pissed" emoticon...

Oh, yeah... more details about accreditation (Great for curing insomnia):
http://som.umdnj.edu/aoa/docs/StandardPagesfromCOMAccreditationStandardsProceduresfinal12-05-04.pdf



In my experience, accreditation is more a function of bureacratic procedures and legal BS than quality control per se. Accreditation is not there to micro-manage schools, just to paint some broad outlines of minimal standards. If you read between the lines, the real point of accreditation isn't about education, it's about meeting requirements to borrow federal money.

The real quality control mechanism for educational institutions and the professions they feed is actually a lot bigger and more obvious than COCA. It's called the federal government, and it's who ultimately writes the checks which fund these schools. As long as DO students are well trained enough to be employable and the market is not flooded with physicians, they will continue to pay back their loans and everyone will be happy. But, if students start to default on their loans because of unchecked growth or poor quality physicians who can't find good paying work, the feds will pull the plug, and the school/profession will be in trouble, somewhat like some chiropractic schools may be today:
http://www.chirobase.org/03Edu/loan.html
http://www.defaulteddocs.dhhs.gov/discipline.asp

In contrast, WVSOM likes to brag about their 0% default rate. http://www.wvsom.edu/About/WhatsNew/loan.htm

Personally, I don't think the supply of physicians is going to outstrip demand in the foreseeable future or that DO's will become lower quality docs that can't find jobs. In fact, even as the number of available DO seats increase, the average MCAT scores have gone up. There's always a danger that as a profession or business expands, it will fail at success. I just don't think it's abig danger with Osteopathic Medicine. Just some thoughts...

 

[BklynWill]

These are some interesting perspectives and I am interested in learning more. Can someone elaborate on the hisotry of COCA? I know it currently falls under the control of the AOA but didn't this body (or a body of a similar function) formerly exist as an independent accrediting council?