Connecticut’s Quinnipiac University announced earlier this year that it wanted to open a medical school, beginning a push that will take until 2013 or 2014 to get the first med students in the door.
The new school would be located in several buildings that the university, located near New Haven, purchased in nearby North Haven from WellPoint’s Anthem unit for $32 million several years ago. Read more on the plans here.
Schools like Quinnipiac that want to grant MD degrees go through a lengthy process required by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education. The panel is made up of med-school officials, practicing docs, public members and med students. It currently has 132 fully accredited schools in the U.S. schools and 17 in Canada.
Seven new schools — two each in Michigan and New Jersey and one each in California, Florida and South Carolina — have reached applicant status with the committee, meaning they has gotten through the preliminaries and paid a $25,000 fee. Another, Hofstra University in New York, is currently the only one at the next step in the process when the first site visit by the LCME takes place,
Six schools now have preliminary accreditation, meaning they can recruit and accept students. This group now includes two more Florida schools and others from Michigan, Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia.
One last level (no schools currently here), a few more hurdles like a final vote and at last — it’s accreditation time. For lists of the schools at different levels on the accreditation journey, see here.
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