California medical center may lose its cardiology training program

The program to train cardiologists at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center has been stripped of its national accreditation by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. The decision marks the first time a residency or fellowship program at the facility has lost accreditation. The council faulted the program for "insufficient teaching time by the faculty." County-USC hopes to fix the problems and have the 21-year-old cardiology program recertified before June 30, 2009, when the accreditation is to be withdrawn.