Anyone have any idea whats going on with Touros new MD school in Hackensack? The website http://www.touromed.edu/education/admissions.php hasn't been updated in a while.
They lost their Step 2 accreditation from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) earlier this year and now are currently in Step 1 of the accreditation process. They were originally planning on accepting their first class for fall 2009 but due to some "setbacks," they lost part of their initial accreditation status from LCME and plan on accepting their first class for fall 2010, at the earliest. Every allopathic medical school in the U.S. and Canada has to go through a series of 5 phases/steps in order to be fully accreditated by LCME and be allowed to grant the MD degree. A school is not fully accreditated until they complete all 5 steps of the accreditation process but can start accepting students into their inaugural class once they reach Step 3. There are currently 4 schools that have reached Step 3 of the accreditation process and are accepting students into their inaugural class for fall 2009: Florida International University, University of Central Florida, Texas Tech-El Paso, and The Commonwealth Medical College.
The Touro MD school in NJ might not open, since they are trying to buy NYMC. If they do succeed in taking over NYMC, they won't be building their MD School in NJ. Apparently, it costs more for Touro to build a school from the ground up rather than to just buy out NYMC. http://lohud.com/article/2009903070370
Meh. Lots of counties don't have med schools. Anyhow, I believe if they buy NYMC (and possibly even if they don't) the hospitals in the area are going to begin to be part of the clerkships for NYMC. So...the region would gain some med school attention.
