Patient Feedback

Opportunity To Provide Comments

The U.S. Department of Education requires accrediting agencies to provide an opportunity for third-party comment, either in writing or at a public hearing (at the accrediting agencies’ discretion) with respect to institutions or programs scheduled for review. All comments must relate to accreditation standards for the discipline and required accreditation policies. To comply with the department’s requirement on the use of third-party comment regarding program’s qualifications for accreditation or initial accreditation, the following procedures have been developed.

In its accredited lists of programs, the Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA) publishes the year of the next site visit for each program it accredits. In addition, CODA posts its spring and fall announcements on the accreditation news area of the website for those programs being visited January through June or July through December. Special site visits and initial accreditation site visits for developing programs may be scheduled after the posting on CODA's website; thus, the specific dates of these site visits will not be available for publication. Parties interested in these specific dates (should they be established) are encouraged to contact the commission office.

Programs with the status of initial accreditation, and programs seeking initial accreditation must solicit comment through appropriate notification of communities of interest and the public, such as faculty, students, program administrators, specialty and dental-related organizations, patients, and consumers.
CODA will request written comments from interested parties on its website. All comments relative to programs being visited will be due to CODA no later than 60 days before the program’s site visit to allow time for the program to respond. Therefore, programs being site-visited in January through June will be listed in the fall posting of the previous year and programs scheduled for a site visit from July through December will be listed in the spring posting of the current year. Any unresolved issues related to the program’s compliance with the accreditation standards will be reviewed by the visiting committee while on-site.

Those programs scheduled for review must solicit third-party comments through appropriate notification of communities of interest and the public such as faculty, students, program administrators, specialty and dental-related organizations, patients, and consumers at least 90 days before their site visit. The notice should indicate the deadline of 60 days for receipt of third-party comments in the CODA office and should stipulate that comments must be signed, that signatures will be removed from comments prior to forwarding them to the program and that comments must pertain only to the standards for the particular program or policies and procedures used in CODA's accreditation process. The announcement may include language to indicate that a copy of the appropriate accreditation standards or the policy on third-party comments may be obtained by contacting CODA at 211 East Chicago Ave., Chicago, IL 60611, or by calling 1-800-621-8099, extension 4653.

All comments submitted must pertain only to the standards relative to the program being reviewed or policies and procedures used in the accreditation process. Comments will be screened by CODA staff for relevancy. Only signed comments will be considered. For comments not relevant to these issues, the individual will be notified that the comment is not related to accreditation and, where appropriate, referred to the appropriate agency. For those individuals who are interested in submitting comments, requests may be made to CODA.

All relevant comments will have signatures removed, then be referred to the program at least 50 days before the site visit for review and response. A written response from the program should be provided to CODA and the visiting committee 15 days before the site visit. Adjustments may be necessary in the site visit schedule to allow discussion of comments with proper personnel. Negative comments received after the established 60-day deadline will be handled as a complaint.

Revised: 2/16; 2/15; 8/13; 8/12, 8/11, 7/09, 8/02, 1/97; Reaffirmed: 8/13; 8/10, 1/03; Adopted: 7/95

INSTITUTION: University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Dentistry
PROGRAM(S) TO BE REVIEWED: Dental Education, Dental Hygiene, Advanced Education in General Dentistry, Endodontics, Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics, and Periodontics
SITE VISIT DATE: November 14-16, 2017
60-DAY DEADLINE FOR RECEIPT OF COMMENTS IN THE COMMISSION OFFICE: September 14, 2017
(Commission on Dental Accreditation, 211 E. Chicago Avenue, Chicago, IL 60611)