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THE
GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER
POLICY
ON DEPARTMENTAL REVIEWS
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Definitions
For purposes of
this document, the following definitions will be in effect:
• The term
“Medical Center” means both the School of Public
Health and Health Services and the School of Medicine and Health Sciences.
• The term
“Department” means, as appropriate, an academic department
within the School of Medicine and Health Sciences or the School of Public
Health and Health Services and any other administrative unit, (e.g.,
a center or an institute) within either School whose purpose is to further
the academic mission of the Medical Center.
• The term
“Departmental Review” means a two-step process that
includes both: (a) a Self-Study conducted by a Department; and
(b) an External Review of the Department conducted by a committee
of individuals who are not faculty members of the Department.
Objectives
Departmental
Reviews shall be designed to meet the following objectives:
• To provide
Departments with the opportunity to assess and evaluate their
mission, goals, and objectives as well as their strengths and weaknesses
to further each of the same as they relate to the Department’s
teaching, research, and community activities (including, as appropriate
their patient care and public health practice activities).
• To provide
Departments with the opportunity to assess and evaluate the extent
to which they coordinate their teaching, research, and community activities
with other Departments within the respective Schools and, in
turn, further the mission of the Medical Center.
• To provide
Departments with the opportunity to assess and evaluate their
contributions to the Medical Center and, in turn, their significance
in furthering the mission of the Medical Center.
• To provide
Departments with the opportunity to develop a plan to further
the mission, goals, and objectives of the Department that is
based on the assessments and evaluations it has performed.
• To provide
Department faculty (and other appropriate members of the faculty)
with the opportunity to express their views about the leadership of the
Department (especially with respect to the Department’s
ability to carry out its mission and to achieve its goals and objectives).
Process and Procedures
Departmental
Reviews shall be conducted in accordance with the following provisions:
• Each Department
shall conduct a Departmental Review no less frequently than every
seven years and no more frequently than every five years. This requirement
may be modified in exceptional cases by the Dean of the appropriate School.
Under no circumstances, however, may the Dean waive this requirement.
In years when a formal accreditation review is taking place that also
requires extensive self-study of the Department, the format and scheduling
of the Departmental Review may be modified in order to impose the least
additional burden on the Department.
• The Medical
Center’s Office of Faculty Affairs shall establish and maintain
the schedule for each Departmental Review. Such schedule shall
take into account other programs or processes designed to assess and evaluate
the performance of a Department (or any part thereof) to avoid
overlapping or repetitive studies.
• A Departmental
Review shall be designed to assess and evaluate the Department’s
teaching, research, and community activities since the date of the Department’s
most recent Departmental Review.
• A Department’s
Self-Study shall be conducted in accordance with the following provisions:
• The Self-Study
shall be designed to address all relevant provisions of the review format
required by the accrediting body of the respective schools or programs
(for example, in the case of the School of Medicine and Health Sciences,
LCME; in the case of the School of Public Health and Health Services,
CEPH).
• The Self-Study
Committee shall be comprised of appropriate members of the faculty of
the Department. At the discretion of the chair of the Committee,
members of the faculty with a joint appointment within the Department
may be appointed to the Committee. Neither the chair of the Department
nor members of the faculty with an adjunct (or other part-time) appointment
may be appointed to the Committee. However, for smaller Departments
with insufficient numbers of senior faculty it may be permissible to
include junior faculty members on the Self-Study Committee, and/or GWU
faculty outside the Department as per the discretion of the
Dean.
• If possible,
the chair of the Self-Study Committee shall be a professor with tenure.
The chair will be elected by the members of the Self-Study Committee.
In the event of a tie vote, the chair will be appointed by the Dean
of the respective School.
• The Self-Study
Process must be completed within four months.
• The chair
of the Department shall prepare a report on the “state
of the Department” that must be included within the final
written report of the Self-Study Committee.
• In preparing
its final written report, the Self-Study Committee must consult with
and solicit the views of the chair of the Department.
• A Department’s
External Review shall be conducted in accordance with the following provisions:
• The External
Review shall be designed to include a review of the Department’s
Self-Study; interviews with appropriate members of the faculty (including
the chair of the Department); and a final written report (including
findings and recommendations) to be presented to the Dean of the appropriate
school. While the review summary documents may follow the format of
other professional review groups, the suggested format for the internal
review report will be that of the LCME for the School of Medicine and
Health Sciences and that of the CEPH for the School of Public Health
and Health Services.
• The External
Review Committee shall be comprised of three senior level faculty members
(i.e., associate professors, associate research professors,
professors, and research professors) with the appropriate qualifications
and expertise to conduct an external review of the Department.
At least two of these individuals shall be recognized as national experts
within the field of the Department and should hold the rank
of professor at, as appropriate, another accredited U.S. school of medicine,
school of health sciences, or school of public health. At the discretion
of the Dean of the appropriate school, the third individual on the Committee
may be a member of the faculty of The George Washington University,
although such individual may not hold a faculty appointment within the
Department.
• For clinical
Departments, there will be a representative from the MFA on
the External Review Committee, and the chair of the Committee will be
agreed upon between the Dean of the Medical School and the President
of the MFA.
• The chair
of the External Review Committee shall be an individual from, as appropriate,
another U.S. accredited school of medicine, school of health sciences,
or school of public health. Members of the faculty of The George Washington
University may not serve as chair of the Committee.
• The composition
of the External Review Committee shall be determined by the Dean of
the appropriate school in consultation with the chair of the Department.
• The Dean
of the appropriate school will present the final written report of the
External Review Committee to the Vice President for Health Affairs (VPHA).
After appropriate discussion and consultation with first, the chair
of the Department and then, the members of the faculty of the
Department, the VPHA will present the report and a plan of
action to the Executive Committee of the Faculty Senate.
• Support
for an External Review, including support for the External Review Committee,
will be provided by the Office of the Dean of the appropriate School.
• The External
Review Process should be completed over a period of no more than four
months.
Approved as revised
by the Faculty Senate Executive Committee
August 15, 2006
Approved by the
Medical Center Faculty Senate
September 6, 2006
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