Expansion granted preliminary accreditation
USC’s School of Medicine-Greenville received approval Tuesday to open to students in Fall 2012.
The Liason Committee on Medical Education granted preliminary accreditation to the school. The full accreditation process usually takes about four years.
The School, a partnership between the USC and the Greenville Hospital System, will expand the university’s current two-year program in Greenville to a full four-year program. In 1991, the USC School of Medicine began sending third- and fourth-year students to train in the GHS. So far, 271 students have completed their training in Greenville.
The School expects to accept an incoming class of 50 students this fall, which will expand to 100 students in four years. Plans call for 22 to 24 basic sciences faculty to be added to GHS’ approximately 300 current clinical faculty members.
The School is funded through an agreement with GHS, not with state dollars. The GHS and the state are interested in addressing the lack of physicians in South Carolina. The School will become the 136th medical education program in the U.S.