SACSCOC Reaffirms MUSC Accreditation for 10 Years

Contact: Sheila Champlin
843-792-2691
champlin@musc.edu

March 9, 2017

CHARLESTON, SC – The Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) has received reaffirmation of its accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC). SACSCOC is the university’s regional accrediting body, which determines, among other things, whether MUSC is authorized to offer federal financial aid to students. Reaffirmation of MUSC’s accreditation by SACSCOC occurs every 10 years.

The SACSCOC reviewers visited the MUSC campus over the past two days for two key reasons. First, to determine whether the university meets each of SACSCOC’s 103 standards through interviews with MUSC leaders, faculty, staff, and students. The reviewers had previously received substantial written documentation of MUSC’s compliance with these standards. The on-site visit rounded out this information with personal interactions.

By the end of their visit, the reviewers determined that MUSC is in compliance with all standards. Furthermore, the group noted they had no recommendations concerning compliance, a noteworthy achievement in the accreditation process.

“The reaffirmation of accreditation with no recommendations translates to a clean bill of health for the university,” said MUSC President David J. Cole, M.D., FACS. “The reviewers told us they were especially impressed with how MUSC’s faculty, staff, and students reflected our commitment to innovation and collaboration, two of MUSC’s core values.”

The second role of the onsite reviewers was as consultants to MUSC regarding its Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) titled “Team Up for Better Health.” The QEP is a required element of SACSCOC accreditation.

“Even without this requirement for accreditation, we would embrace the QEP initiative since it aligns perfectly with the goals of Imagine MUSC 2020, our institution’s strategy for the future,” Cole said. “Team Up for Better Health is a set of activities and initiatives that will improve students’ practical, applied teamwork skills, and, thereby, help our graduates be even more marketable to employers and more competitive for prestigious residencies and fellowships. Team Up for Better Health will also help improve the practice of effective teamwork across the clinical and research missions,” he noted.

SACSCOC standards reflect a broad range of expectations for institutions of higher education including effective governance, appropriate stewardship of financial and physical resources, adequate faculty and staff (all with appropriate qualifications), protection of academic freedom, sufficient faculty development opportunities, progress in the research mission, evaluation of all employees, effective student support services, sufficient library resources, and indices that the institution engages in continuous quality improvement through systematic evaluation of performance against its mission. 

“Preparing for our reaffirmation of accreditation, which is critical to our mission as an institution of higher education, was indeed a collaborative effort across the enterprise,” Cole said. “Special thanks and recognition go to Dr. Suzanne Thomas for leading MUSC through the process and to Dr. Jeff Borckardt for leading Team Up for Better Health.

“We should all be proud of this accomplishment and what it means for us in terms of the ability to carry out our vision to lead health innovation for the lives we touch in the areas of education, research, and patient care.”

About MUSC

Founded in 1824 in Charleston, MUSC is the oldest medical school in the South, as well as the state’s only integrated, academic health sciences center with a unique charge to serve the state through education, research and patient care. Each year, MUSC educates and trains more than 3,000 students and more than 850 residents in six colleges: Dental Medicine, Graduate Studies, Health Professions, Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy. The state’s leader in obtaining biomedical research funds, in fiscal year 2019, MUSC set a new high, bringing in more than $284 million. Find out more about our academic programs.

As the health care system of the Medical University of South Carolina, MUSC Health is dedicated to delivering the highest quality and safest patient care while educating and training generations of outstanding health care providers and leaders to serve the people of South Carolina and beyond. Patient care is provided at 14 hospitals with approximately 2,500 beds and five additional hospital locations in development, more than 350 telehealth sites and connectivity to patients’ homes, and nearly 750 care locations situated in all regions of South Carolina. In 2021, for the seventh consecutive year, U.S. News & World Report named MUSC Health the No. 1 hospital in South Carolina. Learn more about clinical patient services.

MUSC and its affiliates have collective annual budgets of $4.4 billion. The nearly 25,000 MUSC team members include world-class faculty, physicians, specialty providers and scientists who deliver groundbreaking education, research, technology and patient care.