by
Jennifer Kowalewski
For the third time since 1997,
the Centers for Osteopathic Research and Education (CORE) system
will undergo an on-site inspection — Thursday, Feb. 16, and
Friday, Feb. 17 — by the American Osteopathic Association (AOA)
to accredit this Osteopathic Postdoctoral Training Institution
(OPTI). An OPTI is a community-based
training consortium made up of at least one college of
osteopathic medicine and one hospital. Other hospitals and
health-care facilities may also partner within the consortium.
There are currently 13 hospitals affiliated with CORE.
CORE representatives will meet
with members of the AOA inspection team to determine how well
CORE is achieving established benchmarks throughout its
statewide osteopathic medical education consortium.
“OPTIs provide a
mechanism to ensure quality programming for AOA-approved
graduate medical education (GME) programs,”
says Cheryl Riley,
assistant dean for academic affair and CORE operations.
“Each hospital in Ohio that is
a member of CORE has osteopathic GME programs co-sponsored by
OU-COM and participates in this OPTI inspection for continuing
accreditation.”
In July 1995, the AOA Board of
Trustees passed regulations and developed standards to accredit
OPTIs. The CORE system is the nation’s first accredited OPTI
(1998), providing an infrastructure to promote quality
osteopathic pre-doctoral and post-doctoral education at
participating teaching hospitals throughout Ohio. CORE was
inspected again in May 2002, receiving continuing accreditation
in 2003. Riley says that the Accreditation Document for OPTI
outlines stringent administrative and educational standards
pertinent to such things as organization, governance, financial
resources, facilities, research efforts, faculty appointments,
curriculum development and program evaluation. An OPTI Self
Study was conducted by CORE staff and submitted to the AOA sixty
days prior to the upcoming inspection to substantiate the CORE
system’s compliance with the established standards.
“Those individuals who are an
integral part of providing services that address these standards
in the CORE system contributed to the preparation of this
report,” Riley says, adding the next step is the actual on-site
inspection. “During the visit, the inspectors will meet with key
stakeholders who represent the CORE system.”
On Thursday, the inspectors
will be at the Athens campus, completing document review and
conducting interviews with finance, faculty, curriculum,
library, research, and Osteopathic Principles and Practice
representatives to mention a few. On Friday, the inspectors will
travel to the Columbus CORE site to meet with interns,
residents, and directors of medical education as well as the
CORE Academic Steering Committee (CASC) as they continue the
two-day inspection process.
“They will meet with a lot of
people within the CORE system to see if our OPTI is meeting the
standards as outlined in our Self Study,” she says.
Following the two day on-site
survey, the inspection team will have an exit conference with
the CASC to let members in attendance know their findings and
recommendations. The visiting team’s report is forwarded to
Keith Watson, D.O., the chief academic officer for this
OPTI, for comment before submitting their final report to the
AOA for review. Riley says that the entire accreditation process
takes approximately six months and expects to receive official
notification regarding OPTI accreditation status by September
2006.
“We would like to have no major
citations since CORE not only tries to meet OPTI standards but
strives to exceed them,” she says. We’re doing our best to
prepare for the inspection and hope to obtain excellent
ratings.”
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