CMED residency accreditation final step prior to student arrival, Yoder says
The Central Michigan University College of Medicine has received additional accreditation from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education.
The ACGME is the largest national organization responsible for awarding accreditation to residency programs.
CMED has been awarded a five-year institutional accreditation to CMED’s residency programs associated with CMU’s Medical Education Partners: Covenant HealthCare and St. Mary’s of Michigan. Five years is the longest length of accreditation a residency program can receive through the ACGME.
The accreditation was awarded because each partner hospital was found in regulation with ACGME requirements, and no citations were issued to either campus.
"This accreditation applies to our institution as a provider of graduate medical education (which contains five residency programs)," CMED Dean Ernest Yoder said in an email Thursday. "The other accreditation we have received applies to the undergraduate program."
Residency education is a requirement for most medical students. Students receive valuable clinical experience during their residency and choose a medical specialty to focus on in order to prepare them to practice medicine independently.
The five residency programs offered by CMED are emergency medicine, family medicine, general surgery, internal medicine and obstetrics-gynecology.
"(After this accreditation,) we have no further accreditation steps prior to student arrival. The Higher Learning Commission will visit us next August when students are here," Yoder said. "We are very excited to receive this accreditation and proud to be a leader among residency programs in being granted full five-year accreditation status without any reservations."
In February, CMED was awarded preliminary accreditation. In December, the Liaison Committee on Medical Education voted to continue the accreditation process. The LCME is the national accrediting authority for medical schools in the United States.
CMED will officially welcome its first class in the fall of 2013. During the CMU Board of Trustees pre-meeting in early December, Yoder said CMED has started to send out acceptance letters.
CMED has received 2,765 applications ahead of the Dec. 15 deadline. Sixty applicants will be chosen for the inaugural class.
