Mission, Vision, and Goals

Mission

Educate health professionals to care compassionately, teach innovatively, and improve constantly through health services research.

Vision

Educate and advance knowledge to transform health care for the benefit of the people and diverse communities we serve.

Goals

In order to fulfill its mission and vision, USC School of Medicine‐Greenville has adopted the following goals:

1. To educate physicians competent in medical knowledge, patient care and technical skill, who are champions of collaborative interpersonal communication, professional responsibility and ethical behavior.
2. To educate physicians who take responsibility for the health care needs of their communities, are responsive to transformation that improves patient‐centered care and who understand the interdependent relationship of the physician, the hospital and all other health care providers.
3. To create a School of Medicine capable of meeting the changing societal health care needs.
4. To educate physicians committed to evidence‐based, cost‐effective care standardization, quality, patient safety, and ongoing comparative effectiveness research.

Guiding Principles

1. USCSOM‐Greenville will be responsive to the changing health care needs of our society.
2. USCSOM‐Greenville will strive to consider the needs of the students, faculty, and administration in a manner which enhances the stature of both USC and GHS.
3. USCSOM‐Greenville understands that health care delivery is constantly evolving and that its physician graduates should facilitate and advocate transformation that improves care provision.
4. USCSOM‐Greenville will be integrated with all aspects of the GHS delivery system.
5. USCSOM‐Greenville will graduate physicians who understand and participate in research that compares the relative clinical effectiveness and outcomes of various treatments.
6. USCSOM‐Greenville supports development of a health care workforce that reflects future societal needs and the diversity of the communities served.
7. USCSOM‐Greenville will educate physicians to be champions for patient safety, standardization, evidence based care, and quality; responsive to the medical needs of their community; sensitive to the societal cost of medicine; activists for the education of the future health care workforce; and practitioners that care for all patients regardless of race, social stature, or ability to pay.
8. USCSOM‐Greenville students will practice patient centered care that values the interdependent roles of health care providers and facilities in service to their patients.
9. USCSOM‐Greenville will produce physicians competent not only in medical knowledge, technical skill, and patient care, but also in compassion, collaborative interpersonal communication, professional responsibility and ethical behavior.
10. USCSOM‐Greenville believes that candidates for medical school who value professionalism and possess exceptional interpersonal communication skills can be prepared, identified, and selected to become successful practicing physicians.
11. USCSOM‐Greenville will establish a learning environment that emphasizes the relationship between undergraduate medical education and the real world of patient care.
12. USCSOM‐Greenville strives to alleviate the cost of medical education as a significant barrier to student matriculation and graduation, or as a factor in the selection of a career specialty.
13. USCSOM‐Greenville utilizes policies and procedures that synergistically combine the academic virtues of USC with the operational efficiencies of the GHS health system to the benefit of its students, faculty and staff.
14. USCSOM‐Greenville faculty will emphasize and demonstrate the clinical import of the materials that they teach.
15. USCSOM‐Greenville faculty selection, development, and promotion processes will favor those committed to their profession as a calling; who view their teaching ability as a gift and privilege.
16. USCSOM‐Greenville graduates will be fully prepared and highly competitive to enter graduate medical education.
17. USCSOM‐Greenville appreciates that access to medical information is constantly changing and that educational focus must continually emphasize methods to optimally acquire the most current knowledge.
18. USCSOM‐Greenville will utilize educational resources, infrastructure and technology in a fiscally responsible manner, incorporating external resources in the education of health care students when advantageous.

History

USCSOM‐Greenville is a four year medical program developed as a partnership between the University of South Carolina (USC) and the Greenville Health System (GHS).

USC, founded in 1801 in Columbia, SC, currently has four‐year campus locations in Columbia, Aiken, Beaufort, and Spartanburg and two‐year campus locations in Lancaster, Sumter, Salkehatchie (Allendale and Walterboro), and Union (Union and Laurens). Total annual enrollment at the University is approximately 48,000. The Columbia campus has more than 320 degree programs through its 15 degree‐granting colleges and schools. Its faculty generated $230 million in funding for research, outreach, and training programs in fiscal year 2014.

USC’s participation in undergraduate medical education dates back to the 1960s. After an extended planning period, which resulted in preliminary accreditation by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME), USCSOM‐Columbia matriculated its first class in February 1977. The charter class graduated in May 1981, at which time the school achieved full LCME accreditation.

GHS, founded as a city hospital in 1912, is a public, not-for-profit academic health center committed to clinical healthcare delivery, workforce education and development, and clinical research. Over the years, GHS has progressed from a standalone hospital to an academic health center with academic and research programs including a medical school.

As a public health system with seven campuses and 14,000 employees, GHS provides comprehensive health care for the 10-county upstate region of South Carolina and beyond. As both the safety net hospital and the major provider of specialty services, GHS is the predominant healthcare resource in the region. Currently, GHS has a Level I Trauma Center and Level III neonatal ICU designation. It is the largest provider of obstetrical services and the only provider of children’s services in the region. GHS has a rich academic history; currently there are 14 ACGME-accredited postgraduate residencies and fellowships and more than 350 clinical trials, 172 annual peer-reviewed publications, and more than 250 national peer-reviewed presentations annually.

GHS began offering elective rotations for fourth-year medical students from the USC School of Medicine Columbia in 1983. Citing a common interest in healthcare education and the acknowledgment of the robust clinical activity at GHS, USC and GHS partnered to create a branch regional clinical campus of the USC School of Medicine at GHS in 1991. For 23 years, fifteen to 30 students annually relocated from Columbia to Greenville to complete their clinical clerkships at GHS.

In August 2012, USC School of Medicine Greenville opened on GHS’ Memorial Medical Campus, welcoming a charter class of 53 first-year medical students. In 2015, the school welcomed its fourth class, bringing enrollment to 280 students. By 2019, the school will reach its full capacity with 400 students enrolled at a time.

Realizing that fulfillment of their mission and vision could best be achieved through expanding their relationship, USC and GHS pursued a broader partnership and signed the USC/GHS Networking Agreement in 2008, which created the USC/GHS Academic Health System. With the goal of developing interdependent programs which will enable the institutions to evolve into an academic health system capable of meeting the challenges confronting health care delivery, the Agreement sought to leverage the resources within GHS and the USC Health Sciences Division (which focuses primarily on health-related research and education initiatives). Acknowledging that South Carolina faces chronic shortages of healthcare professionals in number and geographic distribution (ranking 38 nationally in physicians per 100,000 population1), discussions quickly gravitated towards expansion of the undergraduate medical education program. Given the physical and clinical capacity constraints at the existing state medical schools, as well as the continued budgetary challenges facing the State University System, a partnership between GHS and USC was viewed as a potential mechanism to address the State’s physician workforce needs. With the abundant clinical resources in Greenville, the most logical growth strategy involved expanding the campus at GHS to a four-year medical school with separate LCME accreditation.

After completing a feasibility study and comprehensive planning study, USC School of Medicine Greenville applied for Applicant School status with the LCME in January 2010. A Foundational Agreement was established, a multi-year financial projection completed and the mission, vision, goals and Guiding Principles were established. On August 6, 2010, the Boards of Trustees of GHS and USC approved by proclamation the creation of the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville.  The school expects to be fully accredited by 2016, prior to graduating its first class in May 2016.

Campus

The Offices of the Dean, Admissions, Student Affairs, and Educational Affairs, as well as faculty and departmental offices, and the Library are located on the Greenville Memorial Campus.

Library Facilities

The library is open to all users including medical students, residents, faculty, and attending physicians 24 hours a day, year‐round, via card access. Staff assistance is available approximately 85 to 90 hours throughout the week as well as on weekends. The library provides additional on‐call support for afterhours questions.

In order to support the School, the campus library has undergone additional expansion to include an Information Commons, consisting of approximately 6,900 ft.² of space in the Health Sciences Education Building. The information commons is the main library for the campus and the current library facility in the hospital functions as a satellite. Students and faculty also have access to library services of the University of South Carolina in Columbia.

Affiliated Hospitals

Greenville Memorial Hospital

Greenville Memorial Medical Campus is a regional referral center for the diagnosis and treatment of heart, cancer, women’s services, reproductive endocrinology, children’s hospital, children’s emergency room and rehabilitation. It is also a community hospital providing general inpatient and outpatient services for those in our immediate community. Greenville Memorial Hospital is located on this campus. It serves the area as: the only Level I Trauma Center, the only Children’s Emergency Center, the only Pediatric Intensive Care Unit to treat, and the only Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).

Patewood Memorial Hospital

Greenville Health System’s Patewood Medical Campus offers state‐of‐the‐art technology and a multidisciplinary approach to medicine, including Patewood Memorial Hospital — a family-centered, state-of-art, short stay surgical hospital. In 2013, Patewood Memorial Hospital was awarded The Gold Seal of Approval by The Joint Commission for its total joint replacement program, involving knee, hip and shoulder replacements. It is the first hospital in South Carolina to receive the commission’s Gold Seal for its shoulder replacement program. Patewood Memorial Hospital has also been ranked as a top hospital in surgery by Consumer Reports.

Marshall I. Pickens Psychiatric Hospital

Marshall I. Pickens Hospital provides an array of diagnostic and treatment services for emotional, behavioral, and psychological disorders in children, adolescents, and adults. The hospital offers inpatient acute care for the treatment of depression and all other mental illnesses.

Shriner’s Childrens Hospital

Shriners Hospitals for Children® is a health care system of 22 hospitals dedicated to improving the lives of children by providing pediatric specialty care, innovative research, and outstanding teaching programs for medical professionals. Children up to age 18 with orthopedic conditions, burns, spinal cord injuries, and cleft lip and palate are eligible for care and receive all services in a family‐centered environment, regardless of the patients’ ability to pay.

Greer Memorial Hospital

Greer Memorial Hospital is a general medical and surgical hospital located in Greer, SC. The facility manages 146 beds. It is accredited by the Joint Commission.

Hillcrest Hospital

Specializing in short stay and outpatient surgical procedures, the facility serves the Mauldin, Simpsonville and Fountain Inn area, offering the latest technology and an experienced surgical team. Each year, its approximately 250 staff members perform more than 2,000 surgeries and care for 90,000 patients.

Patrick B. Harris Psychiatric Hospital

Patrick B. Harris Psychiatric Hospital is a 200 bed, regional acute care inpatient facility of the South Carolina Department of Mental Health (SCDMH) which serves 13 counties of the upstate of South Carolina. The hospital provides intensive, short‐term, psychiatric diagnostic and treatment services on a 24 hour, emergency voluntary and involuntary basis. The SCDMH mental health centers screen admissions and are actively involved in discharge planning.