Full Accreditation Achieved by Med School

Major accrediting body grants full accreditation as institution draws closer to full accreditation from all agencies 

The Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine has been granted full accreditation by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE). This milestone brings the school, which admitted its first students in 2018, closer to full accreditation from all regulatory agencies.

“This is further validation of how the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine continues to meet and surpass all expectations, while training incredible doctors of the future,” said Robert C. Garrett, FACHE, chief executive officer of Hackensack Meridian Health. “The faculty, staff, and students of this one-of-a-kind institution are forging a new path to a better future.”

“We are hugely gratified that we have achieved this milestone,” said Jeffrey Boscamp, M.D., the interim dean of the School. “We as a team are all working hard in one direction: to offer the best medical education anywhere, producing the best doctors for New Jersey and the country.”

The MSCHE, responsible for more than 515 accredited and candidate degree-granting institutions, conferred its accreditation after a visit this past summer. The affirmation extends the School’s privilege  to grant M.D. degrees and allows the School to state confidently that “Our students are well-served; society is well-served.”

The next milestone for the School is final accreditation from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME), the major national regulatory body. The School received provisional accreditation from the LCME in February 2021.

Aside from the MSCHE and LCME, the School has received its license from the New Jersey Office of the Secretary of Higher Education (OSHE), and is eligible for, and participates in, the management of Title IV funds through the U.S. Department of Education. The New Jersey Board of Medical Examiners’ provisional approval will convert to full approval upon the LCME’s confirmation of full accreditation.

The School has grown quickly in the three years since its founding. Its inaugural class in 2018 included 60 students. The latest two cohorts have admitted about 160 students apiece, each from an applicant pool of more than 6,000 candidates.

The school’s innovative curriculum includes interdisciplinary learning, the opportunity for a three-year path to residency, an optional fourth year which offers combined master’s degree or graduate certificate programs, and the Human Dimension Course. This immersive community-based experience links pairs of students to families in the community, with a focus on the domains of the social determinants of health: social, environmental, psychological, and medical. Throughout their stay at the School of Medicine, students in the Human Dimension follow the health trajectories of individuals and families, in locations including Hackensack, Garfield, Paterson, Passaic, Bloomfield, Clifton, Nutley, Union City, and West New York.