Proposed med school goes before accreditation board again

A proposed for-profit osteopathic medical school in Idaho may have to push its opening date back a year if a national accreditation agency doesn’t sign off on its plans this month.

That could postpone some other projects, including a proposed $3 million expansion to Idaho State University’s anatomy and physiology laboratory that the new school plans to fund and use.

Dr. Robert Hasty, Dean of the proposed Idaho College of Osteopathic Medicine, said he hopes to hear from the Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation soon.

The school can’t legally start building until it gets pre-accreditation status. Hasty said he still hopes to break ground in April or May and plans to welcome students in fall 2018.

He said earlier this year that if construction didn’t start by the end of April, the opening would be pushed to 2019.