On March 1, 2022, the Liason Committee on Medical Education (LCME) updated the Accreditation Status of California Northstate University College of Medicine (CNUCOM) to “Provisional, on probation.” This announcement follows a reconsideration hearing for CNUCOM held on February 17, 2022.
On January 31, 2022, CNUCOM announced to its students, faculty, and staff that the LCME had denied the institution full accreditation status.
On February 15, 2022, the Sacramento City Council voted to approve a plan for CNUCOM to build a teaching hospital on the site of the Sleep Train Arena, formerly the home of the Sacramento Kings basketball team. (1) However, when pressed by a local news reporter at CBS Sacramento 13, city officials refused to comment on the question of if they were aware of the LCME decision before the vote. (2)
Probation Status – What Does It Mean?
According to a study published in Academic Medicine, probation status is the most severe action decision short of withdrawing accreditation. (3) The LCME Rules of Procedure state that the LCME places a program on probation if they do not substantially comply with published standards. Specifically, it means that the LCME judged that “…the areas of serious non-compliance have compromised the quality of the medical education program, or that the program has failed to make satisfactory progress in achieving compliance after having been granted opportunity to do so.” A school placed on probation is subject to accreditation withdrawal if they do not address their compliance issues within 24 months. (4)
Schools placed on probation by the LCME are required to disclose the final LCME action to all current and prospective students within seven business days. As of the publication of this article, the California Northstate website still indicated that their accreditation status was at “Accredited, Provisional Status”.
References
- City of Sacramento Draft Minutes, Tuesday February 15, 2022, 5:00 PM (https://docs.google.com/gview?url=https%3A%2F%2Fsacramento.granicus.com%2FDocumentViewer.php%3Ffile%3Dsacramento_5f91b4c60a587f5192f6af7c6589dd68.pdf%26view%3D1&embedded=true)
- “Did California Northstate University Disclose They Were Denied Full Accreditation?”, CBS Sacramento 13, February 18, 2022 (https://sacramento.cbslocal.com/video/6202332-did-california-northstate-university-disclose-they-were-denied-full-accreditation/)
- “The Variables That Lead to Severe Action Decisions by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education”, Dan Hunt MD, MBA et al., Academic Medicine, Vol. 91, No. 1, January 2016 (https://lcme.org/wp-content/uploads/filebase/articles/The_Variables_That_Lead_to_Severe_Action_Decisions.30-article-from-AM.PDF)
- LCME Rules of Procedure, June 2021, Page 23 (https://lcme.org/wp-content/uploads/filebase/guidelines_and_procedures/2021-Rules-of-Procedure_9_21_2021.docx)
Laura Turner, MS, is the Executive Director of the Health Professional Student Association (HPSA), which publishes the Student Doctor Network (SDN). Prior to working with HPSA, she served for eight years as the Executive Director of SDN. At HPSA and SDN, Laura has been instrumental in providing students with tools and resources to pursue their aspirations in healthcare. Her previous roles include business analyst positions at The Capital Group and product management and marketing roles at software companies Paciolan, Adexa, and MSC Software.
In her current role at HPSA, Laura continues to drive innovation and forge partnerships to better support aspiring healthcare professionals. She is grateful for the opportunity to help countless individuals to achieve their dreams.