Why is there such a rush in creating a MD school within 2 year time span even though the accreditation process timeline (less than two years) is unrealistic?

According to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, the following residency programs in Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, General Surgery, Pediatrics, and Obstetrics/Gynecology are required for the establishment of an LCME medical school.  Currently, among the potential affiliated hospitals with UNTMD[1]:

• John Peter Smith Hospital has ACGME residencies in Family Medicine (dually accredited by ACGME and AOA), Emergency Medicine, Obstetrics/Gynecology, Orthopedic Surgery and Psychiatry (dually accredited by ACGME and AOA).
• Methodist Medical Center has ACGME residencies in Family Medicine (dually accredited by ACGME and AOA), General Surgery, Internal Medicine, and Obstetrics/Gynecology.
• Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital, HCA Plano Medical Center and Plaza Medical Center are in the planning process of starting up ACGME residency programs.
• Cook Children’s Medical Center and Baylor All Saints Medical Center are not interested in establishing residency programs.
• None of the potential affiliated hospitals is planning to establish a residency program in Pediatrics.  Would this pass the LCME requirement for accreditation?

It took UNTHSC 6 years to start the Doctorate of Physical Therapy program after the School of Heath Professions was approved in 2004.  It took JPS hospital about 8 years to start its residency in Emergency Medicine.  Could UNTMD realistically be ready to admit its first class in 2013?

This timeline of admitting the first class in 2013 is too unrealistic and too optimistic. The hurry timeline, which was arbitrarily chosen, serves two-folds:

• To manipulate the public officials that the school is “free” to the state. The last legislature session in 2009 approved the establishment of a very much needed medical school in South Texas but the funding for the school will not be considered until 2015 by the legislature because of the budget shortfall.
• The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) plans to review in 2015 the state’s need of physician and will assess and recommend to the legislature “whether any additional enrollment increases are necessary.”

The following are the recommendations made by (THECB) in 2008:

• The Legislature should fully support the existing health-related institutions and their expansion efforts before committing additional dollars to new projects.

§         Texas medical schools should continue to increase first-year entering enrollments through 2015, when the Coordinating Board should assess whether additional enrollment increases are necessary.

§          The Legislature should continue to expand efforts, such as the Joint Admission Medical Program, to attract and mentor African American and Hispanic students to careers in medicine. The Coordinating Board requested an additional $10 million in exceptional item funding to support JAMP in Fiscal Years 2010 and 2011.

§         Optimally, the state should encourage growth of more first-year residency positions with a goal of 10 percent more first-year, entry-level residency positions than graduating medical students.

§         If the Legislature is able to fully support the existing commitments in the state and decides to establish an additional medical school in Texas, the South Texas region remains a feasible location.

§          Because the state is attractive to physicians educated and trained elsewhere, Texas should initiate a campaign to attract more of the best physicians educated and trained in other states.

§         In the coming years, the number of female physicians will reach parity with the number of male physicians. Initiatives should be developed to encourage more female physicians to consider practicing in border and non-metropolitan counties.

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[1] University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth: Academic and Business Plan for the Development of a Proposed MD Program (August 2010), p. 44.