In the ongoing saga over the School of Medicine and Health Services probation, Robert Perry, chair of the medical center committee of the Board of Trustees, responded to The Washington Post’s recent criticisms of the schools approach on accreditation.
For those who are not following the drama that has become SMHS, The Hatchet’s Editorial Board has called for the release of the Liaison Committee on Medical Education report that put SMHS on probation in the first place, something the school has inexplicably kept secret. The issues with SMHS this year go from conflicts of interest to rotting cadavers.
The Cliff Notes on Perry’s response go something like this:
- SMHS doesn’t take the probation superficially
- Dean Scott says we are committed to making improvements
- We have a Corrective Action Plan to make the school even better (even though nobody is totally clear on what was wrong in the first place)
- The relationship between Universal Health Services and GW is not damaging
- UHS has invested millions to make the school better
This is more of the same vague defense that we have come to expect of SMHS on these issues. The fact of the matter is they can talk until our ears bleed at this point and we can’t be convinced of improvements until we know what was wrong in the first place.