By McGill Reporter Staff
Dean of Medicine David Eidelman, who is also Vice-Principal (Health Affairs), told the Faculty on Wednesday that a number of items identified in a recent accreditation review are top priorities and are being addressed.
The review was conducted jointly by the U.S. Liaison Committee for Medical Education (LCME) and the Committee on Accreditation of Canadian Medical Schools (CACMS).
In a message to the Faculty, Eidelman said McGill’s Undergraduate Medical Education (UGME) program is accredited with probation, which gives the Faculty about 18 to 24 months to demonstrate significant progress on the items identified by the accreditors, a task he said began immediately upon the reception of the preliminary report.
“As you know, accreditation is a rigorous quality assurance and external peer review process that applies to all faculty of medicine programs,” Eidelman said in his message. “As communicated last month, this UGME accreditation exercise was unique because both the outgoing and newly implemented curricula were surveyed.”
Eidelman noted that the preliminary report on accreditation received in April highlighted the Faculty’s new undergraduate medical curriculum as a strength, “describing it as innovative and patient-centred, and commenting on the commitment of our faculty and staff.
“Because we are transitioning between curricula, we were not entirely surprised that areas for improvement were also identified. In the final report, of the 132 accreditation standards, we were cited as non-compliant for 24 and compliant with need for monitoring for eight. While the final decision is not what we had hoped, this feedback will help drive our ongoing efforts to strengthen the administrative policies and processes in place.”
Eidelman said the Faculty established a UGME Accreditation Task Force in April, immediately upon hearing of the preliminary results. The Task Force has since completed an action plan framework, including timelines and deliverables for each item identified in the accreditation report. “The majority of actions in this document will be addressed by December 31, 2015,” he said.
Examples of the actions taken include: establishing timetables for the Faculty’s strategic milestones; demonstrating the effectiveness of the new MDCM curriculum community service learning component; developing more detailed minutes following curriculum-related meetings; transfering mapping of educational objectives to outcomes into newly acquired software; and improving the communication of objectives to students and residents.
Provost Anthony C. Masi expressed his full support for the Faculty and the steps it is taking to address the accreditation issues.
“McGill’s senior administration is pleased to see the Faculty is responding quickly and effectively to the issues raised in the accreditation process,” Masi said. “We are confident that these matters will be addressed in full well before the time frame established by the accreditation agencies. Under Dean Eidelman’s leadership, the Faculty of Medicine will emerge from this process as an even stronger medical school, which has been ranked consistently as one of the best in the country.”
The Faculty will hold a special Accreditation Assembly on Wednesday, June 17, to share the action plan framework and next steps with all faculty, staff, students and residents.
“I, once again, would like to express my deep appreciation to everyone in the Faculty who has been involved in the process, especially given the exceptional context as we transition between curricula, adapt to a major health care reform and partake in a historic hospital move,” Eidelman said. “As Dean, and as a McGill grad, doctor and professor, I am proud to be part of this Faculty and privileged to experience firsthand how passionate our faculty and staff are about training the next generation, and how committed our students and residents are to become the best doctors they can be for their patients.
“I have no doubt we will work through this together in our ongoing pursuit of excellence, and I look forward to our next meeting with the LCME-CACMS accreditation team to demonstrate our progress.”