Simulation Center Spotlight

The WMed Simulation Center has been granted full reaccreditation by the Society for Simulation in Healthcare (SSH) for the next five years.

News of the important milestone came in August following a site visit in May from a two-person team that participated in a tour of the Simulation Center, conducted interviews with leadership, staff and users of the Simulation Center, reviewed handbooks, procedures, case and training materials, and program evaluations and processes.

“It’s important and it shows that we meet a really high standard that’s been verified by SSH, an organization with the sole purpose of assuring that simulation-based education is done well,” said John Hoyle, MD, assistant dean for Simulation. “It’s exciting and it’s a reflection of all of our hard work.”

The Simulation Center first received full core accreditation and full accreditation in teaching and education from SSH in 2018. SSH is the largest healthcare simulation accrediting body in the world.

Dr. Hoyle said the reaccreditation process was a collaborative effort that involved every team member in the Simulation Center, including Connie Worline, director of Clinical Simulation; Neil Hughes, MD, assistant professor in the Department of Medicine who is a WMed alumnus and former simulation fellow; Ryan Richards, manager of Simulation Operations; Standardized Patient Coordinator Havilah MacInnes; Administrative Assistant Linda Bunting, and simulation center specialists.

At WMed, simulation is a key component of medical education and serves as a bridge for students between the classroom and clinical area. In addition to its integration into the undergraduate curriculum at WMed, the Simulation Center also supports simulation-based exercises for graduate medical education and regularly hosts training events for Kalamazoo’s two hospitals, Ascension Borgess Hospital and Bronson Methodist Hospital.

Currently, first-year students at WMed complete more than 90 hours of simulation-based training as part of their Medical First Responder course, Dr. Hoyle said. In 2022 and 2023 combined, the Simulation Center hosted more than 14,000 learners who logged more than 67,000 hours of training.

“We see and interact with every student and every resident in the institution,” Dr. Hoyle said.

The Simulation Center is made up of more than 25,000 square feet of space between two locations – the W.E. Upjohn M.D. Campus and Ascension Borgess Hospital – with a staff of 20, including two directors, two coordinators, simulation specialists and technicians, and more than 70 standardized patients.

At the W.E. Upjohn M.D. Campus, the Simulation Center boasts more than 24,000 square feet and includes a 13-bed virtual hospital with a large operating room and three debriefing rooms, a 12-room ambulatory clinic, two large control rooms, two procedure labs, two classrooms, an ultrasonography suite, and a virtual endoscopic surgery room.

Additionally, the center is an American Heart Association authorized training center for Basic and Advanced Life Support an and an authorized training site for Pediatric Advanced Life Support. The Simulation Center is also authorized to provide remote testing for the Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery.

The Simulation Center at Ascension Borgess Hospital opened in 2016 and includes 4,100 square feet with a two-bed clinical room with advanced equipment and high-fidelity manikins, a procedure room, an FLS Surgery training room and classrooms. 

Dr. Hoyle said that as simulation-based learning at the medical school continues to expand, he and his team in the Simulation Center are working to provide the best learning experience possible. Over the last year, he said a number of adult and pediatric human patient simulators have been replaced and later this year, the audiovisual system in the facility at W.E. Upjohn M.D. Campus will be overhauled and upgraded.

“The more training we can do and the more high-risk cases we can simulate for our learners, the more we can help provide safer patient care,” he said.