According to the report Keiser suffers from significant non-compliance in the following areas:
- Planning
- Program Effectiveness
- Assessment of Learning Outcomes & Curricular Effectiveness
- Quality Patient Care
The PROBATION sanction is a serious one and if the areas of non complaince are not resolved can result in complete revocation of accreditation - which would be devasting for its students.
According to the CCE:
Probation is an action reflecting the conclusion of the Council that a program is in significant noncompliance with accreditation standards or policy requirements. Such a determination may be based on the Council’s conclusion that:
1. The noncompliance compromises program integrity; for example, the number of areas of noncompliance, financial stability, or other circumstances cause reasonable doubt on whether compliance can be achieved in the permissible timeframe; or
2. The noncompliance reflects recurrent noncompliance with one or more particular standard(s) and/or policy(ies); or
3. The noncompliance reflects an area for which notice to the public is required in order to serve the best interests of students and prospective students
The PROBATION sanction follows Keiser's threats to the Florida House Health Quality Subcommittee in March of 2019 by Jon Miller, then Director of External Affairs at Keiser University and Michael Wiles DC, then the Dean of the Chiropractic Medicine Program.
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Testifying on behalf of Keiser, Miller told House Members that Keiser was afraid it would be "dangerous to go to a chiropractor" who has not met CCE Standards.
Miller stated the bottom line was to "protect the consumer who is the student and the public at large" and that Keiser's fear was that Florida would become a Diploma Mill without CCE Only language.
Miller asked the House Committee:
"Would you go to a lawyer who had not been part of the Florida Bar, would you trust a doctor who's not met the minimum standards of the AMA? Similarly for our profession these are the certain standards that are set out and we're afraid that it would be dangerous to go to a chiropractor who has not met these minimum standards by peers in their profession."
Keiser's Dean Micheal Wiles went further in his testimony by using unfounded fear mongering that removing "CCE Only" language would "endanger public safety" and "threaten the safety of the citizens of the State of Florida".
Its a little ironic that the CCE has now found Keiser's Chiropractic Program to be in SIGNIFICANT NON-COMPLIANCE and the noncompliance reflects an area for which notice to the public is required in order to serve the best interests of students and prospective students.
Even more ironic is that the President of Keiser University is Art Keiser who coincidentally sits on the Board of the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI).
Art Keiser was on the NACIQI Committee during the 2013 Hearing for consideration to renew the CCE with the Department of Education. It was during that very same hearing that several members of NACIQI encouraged the chiropractic profession to bring forth another accrediting agency that they could consider for recognition. One of those individuals was Art Keiser. During testimony before NACIQI Art Keiser revealed a deep seated ignorance of chiropractic education and the accreditation process in general.
Despite the findings of the CCE Keiser still claims on its website that: The Doctor of Chiropractic program at Keiser University is "rigorous" in its preparation of graduates. Though Keiser does have the mandated statement by the CCE:
"The Doctor of Chiropractic degree program at the Keiser University College of Chiropractic Medicine is awarded programmatic accreditation with imposed probation by The Council on Chiropractic Education, 8049 North 85th Way, Scottsdale, AZ, 85258-4321, Phone: (480) 443-8877, Website: www.cce-usa.org."
Interestingly Keiser also claims on its website that:
"Keiser University has been providing quality hands-on education in the chiropractic field for decades."
Despite its claims of being in chiropractic education for "decades" according to the CCE:
"Keiser University - College of Chiropractic Medicine (KUCCM) received its initial accreditation status with the Council on Chiropractic Education (CCE) in January 2019."
According to Keiser's website the College of Chiropractic Medicine is under the leadership of Jennifer Illes, DC, MS who is responsible for the academic, financial, and clinical oversight of the Keiser University College of Chiropractic Medicine and Spine Care Clinic.
Illes serves as the president of the Faculty American Chiropractic Association (FACA) and holds a seat on the House of Delegates for the American Chiropractic Association (ACA).
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Keiser's officials like Wiles have publicly asserted that the use of the terms subluxation and adjustment have "plagued the profession since its founding" and claimed (without any evidence) that the terms create confusion in the minds of non-chiropractic health care providers.
CLICK HERE for more on that story.
According to a document from Keiser circulated during a faculty meeting Keiser laid out 18 key elements of its curriculum and pedagogy including:
- "The lesion popularly described as 'subluxation" in chiropractic will be referred to as somatic dysfunction (the word subluxation will only be sued in its true etymological definition; e.g. a subluxation of the radial head)
- "The technique popularly described as "adjustent" in chiropractic will be referred to as any of the following: chiropractic manipulative therapy; spinal manipulation; spinal manipulative therapy; manipulative therapy"
- Keiser also vowed its support of the public health system "including its efforts to vaccinate the general public against communicable diseases"
The Keiser Chiropractic Medicine Program is required to submit a Progress Report no later than August 1, 2023, specifically addressing the noncompliance concern listed above and providing evidence that the Program is in compliance with the respective Standards.
The Program is also required to host a Focused Site Visit in the Fall of 2023 for verification/validation of the August 2023 Progress Report. At its meeting in January 2024, the Council will review the August 2023 Progress Report, Fall 2023 Final Site Team Report and the Program response to the Final Site Team Report. The Council will then determine whether the Program has demonstrated compliance with the Standards identified in the action and whether Probation can be removed, or the Program has not demonstrated compliance and other action may be appropriate.
Because of the monopoly that the CCE has over chiropractic education and its relationship to licensing control throughout the world students who graduate from a school that is not accredited by the CCE cannot get licensed to practice.
