From the Dean’s Desk | We are Preparing for Accreditation

This coming March, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine will undergo an accreditation visit from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME). Educators from the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, CWRU SOM and the school’s affiliate health systems will meet with accreditors to review program standards and highlight progress made since the 2017 evaluation.

The visit will mark the culmination of almost two years of preparation led by Lia Logio, MD, Vice Dean of Medical Education for the CWRU SOM. Faculty members from across the school have dedicated their time to serving on self-study subcommittees so that we can best understand our strengths and vulnerabilities going into the visit. On Nov. 4, 2024, Dr. Logio presented a grand rounds about the LCME visit that is an excellent resource. If you would like the link to the grand rounds recording, please reach out to Brenda Lowe at loweb@ccf.org.

A mock LCME site visit conducted in September confirmed that we have outstanding education programs that prepare students very well as they transition to residency. Feedback from our students and from the mock LCME site visitors has helped us identify opportunities to improve. For example, we have plans in place to reinforce required observations during their clinical rotations, identify and make students aware of study space at hospitals and orient faculty and students to our new “accountability” system, designed to mitigate student mistreatment (see link below). The mock visit also stressed key points to remember during accreditation interviews:

• CWRU SOM is one school with two programs: the Western Reserve2/University Program and the Lerner College of Medicine Program
• We have four affiliate health systems – not campuses: University Hospitals, Cleveland Clinic, MetroHealth System and Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center
• Faculty, staff and students can report inappropriate conduct via the school’s confidential Accountability Management System

Accreditation is a stressful process but one that will allow our programs to grow stronger.

For those of you participating in the visit, please make sure you can attend the LCME Prep Gathering on Feb. 13 (details forthcoming). The official LCME visit will take place March 3-5. Note that there may be a significant lag between the site visit and accreditation results since the LCME meets only periodically.

I thank everyone participating in this important effort.

I also appreciate the contributions every one of our caregivers has made to this process, whether they are formally participating in the visit or not. Your dedication to our collective success is what allows CCLCM to stand out as a leading medical education program. I have every expectation that our accreditation results will reflect such excellence.

Bud Isaacson, MD

Executive Dean