Drew University Plans to Close Residency Program
The governing body of Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science on Wednesday voted not to appeal last week's notice that its accreditation will be revoked and will begin the process of closing its residency program, the Los Angeles Times reports.
The vote by the Graduate Medical Education Committee, is up for ratification by the Board of Trustees on Friday.
The school last week announced that it was notified by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education that it might lose its accreditation because its affiliate hospital -- Martin Luther King Jr./Drew University Medical Center -- recently failed a federal inspection and will lose its Medicare funding (Balzar/Lin, Los Angeles Times, 11/2).
The accrediting body said the loss of funding was a "catastrophic event" that left the school with "no primary teaching site" (California Healthline, 10/27).
The school last week was given a January 2007 deadline to provide a stable residency program or its accreditation would be revoked.
Susan Kelly, Drew University president, said the closure would take effect next July, but it is temporary. The school plans to rebuild its residency program and find a new affiliate hospital.
Fifty of Drew's 251 resident doctors plan to complete their residency studies before the program closes in July. The other doctors, who are in various stages of study, will be relocated to other institutions, either locally or nationally. Kelly said the decision to close rather than attempt an appeal was made to allow those residents more time to find another institution.
Residents are paid by the county as contract employees to King/Drew. Because of the hospital's loss of funding, the university and its students will ask the county for interim financing through the academic year (Los Angeles Times, 11/2).