WSU College of Medicine receives full accreditation

Washington State University’s medical school received full accreditation this week, completing a near six-year process that began before the program even accepted its first students.

The Liaison Committee on Medical Education granted the WSU Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine accreditation after its virtual site visit and evaluation of the program was complete.

The complete accreditation process took nearly six years from application, to preliminary approval then provisional, and now full accreditation.

“Thank you to our faculty, staff, students and contributors from across the state for dedicating tens of thousands of hours over many years to achieve this amazing milestone for our college,” said John Tomkowiak, founding dean of the college, in a news release.

The Liaison Committee on Medical Education accredits programs through a peer-review process to ensure that they meet established standards and to identify needed improvements.

More than 2,500 pages of documentation and a virtual site visit in October 2020 were parts of the accreditation process.

In 2016, the WSU medical school received preliminary accreditation, and about five years later the first class of students graduated.

All allopathic medical schools in the country must be accredited by the liaison committee in order for graduates to receive their licenses. The university will have to keep improving on and working towards accreditation standards in the coming years.

The WSU College of Medicine will have to go through the accreditation process again with a site visit and review in 2026. After that review, the cycle moves to every eight years.