MEMORANDUM



To: All Faculty, Students, and Alumni

From: Michael A. Harris MD, President

Subject: California Medical Board Division of Licensing Decision





In early October 2004, Ms. Joyce Hadnot, Chief of the Licensing Program of the Medical Board of California, called St. Matthew's University to inform the University that secondary to the destruction of Hurricane Ivan on the Grand Cayman campus that approval of our application could not be considered until a second site visit could be made after the campus facility had been fully restored and she recommended withdrawal of our application. This information was relayed to the Board of Directors of St. Matthew's who requested further information and clarification on the consequences of such an action. Numerous attempts were made to obtain this information for the Board, but Ms. Hadnot did not return our calls.



The Board decided in early December to withdraw its application for licensure and Ms. Hadnot, who still had not provided any additional information, was so notified. The day after the withdrawal letter was sent to the California Board, I wrote a letter to Dr. Bolton, Chairman of the California Medical Board Division of Licensing, demanding a public apology for the disparaging comments directed at a certain number of St. Matthew's students in California's Licensing report on Saba University. A letter of apology was soon forthcoming, followed by a letter from Ms. Hadnot now refusing to allow St. Matthew's to withdraw its application for licensure.



Eleven days after St. Matthew's withdrew its application for licensure; it received a draft report from the California Medical Board Division of Licensing site review team with instructions to review the report for its factual accuracy. The Board of Directors of St. Matthew's did, in fact, review the draft report and found it riddled with over forty factual errors. Some of these errors were minor but most were of major significance and were brought to the site reviewers’ attention one week prior to a time deadline set by the review team. The site reviewers’ report entitled Draft Report on the Division of Licensing’ Site Visit to St. Matthew’s University School of Medicine, Grand Cayman and St. Matthew's response with a list of the factual errors contained therein can be found on the St. Matthew's website at http://smucayman.com/california/ .



The California Medical Board Division of Licensing meeting this past Friday February 18th in Los Angeles, refused to accept any correction of the factual errors contained in the original draft report, accepted the site review team's original draft as written, and subsequently denied St. Matthew's University approval.



St. Matthew's University School of Medicine is a quality Institution with a three year accreditation recognized by the United States Department of Education, licensed in Florida and approved by the State of New York. I am extremely proud of our faculty, students and staff. Your dedication, integrity and perseverance have made all of our progress and accomplishments a possibility. Ross University and AUC were previously denied and ultimately prevailed in obtaining California approval. So too will St. Matthew's University. Please note this decision only affects those who wish to practice in the State of California, Indiana, or Nevada. However, Indiana or Nevada residents may apply for a license by endorsement (having a first license in another state).



Legal counsel has been retained to assess the rights of the University in what the Board of Directors feels has been an act of great injustice and irreparable harm caused by the actions of the California Medical Board Division of Licensing.

__________________
Sebastien Guilbard, M.B.A
Residence Hall/Residence Suites Manager
SGUILBARD@smu.ky or
SGUILBARD@smucayman.com

I read the reports/rebuttals, I can tell you if they start looking at all international schools that send MD's to the states they will certify SMU as Harvard[actually way beyond Harvard in comperison to dozens of automatically approved schools in Africa,Mid East,Easter Europe].
Keep up the good work in moving the school forward.

Darn right, that's something to be proud of!!! I say stick to your guns. These people think they are above the DOE and everybody.

I particularly like the way they recommended you pull your application and when you ask for an apology to the students they get sour and wouldn't let you pull your application suddenly. That is so professional .

Good luck!!

Frankenstone[/i]

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I am older than I look.

Yeah, it sure looks that way.

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Saba Forum Moderator
Saba University School of Medicine, MSIV
Interests: Pediatrics, Psychiatry

Hey, I'm the first person to get indignant when I've been done wrong, as SMU apparently was. Unfortunately, this isn't a perfect world and even if you're justified in reprimanding your boss (i.e. California), they're still going to find a way to DISMISS you.

In any event, kudos to SMU for having the stones to take a stand. Opportunity is an endless commodity, integrity is not...

DM

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"Perseverance Knows No Failure."

As a future student of SMU, I am hopeful that a successful resolution can be made for all interested parties. Has anything postive or negative since occurred that can be released to the public as of now?

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SMU SOM: 3.9130434782608695