Washington State University’s medical school has had a big year. It graduated its first group of doctors in May. On Tuesday, it reached another milestone. The Liaison Committee on Medical Education, the agency that licenses all medical schools in the U.S., has granted WSU’s Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine full accreditation. That’s the highest of the three levels of endorsements that it gives to medical schools.
This comes six years after the first level of accreditation was granted in 2016. That allowed WSU to begin recruiting its first class of medical students and start teaching them. A second round of accreditation came in 2019. Now, with the first class of doctors off to start their professional careers, the final endorsement has been given, along with some recommendations for improvements.
WSU medical students spend most of their first two years learning in classrooms on the university’s Spokane campus. Third- and fourth-year students are assigned to one of four WSU campuses around the state, in Spokane, Richland, Vancouver and Everett, and do rotations in clinics and hospitals all over the state.