the ambulatory R. Keith Summey Medical Pavilion with 4 operating rooms and 2 procedure rooms. Others The MUSC board voted to acquire Kershaw Health's hospitals and Providence Hospitals in 2021. The hospitals had their names changed, and are now in MUSC Health. University status Until 1950, the college was headed by a dean, with the schools headed by directors. In 1950, the title of the school's chief executive was changed to president, with the six schools headed by deans. In 1969, the state legislature elevated the Medical College to university status. By this act it established MUSC as the state's only free standing academic health sciences center, and one of the few institutions of its kind in the nation. In 1970, the six schools of the university were designated as colleges, each with its separate administration and faculty organization. Each college awards appropriate degrees along standard academic lines connected with its educational activities. All professional education programs, and the MUSC Medical Center, are accredited by the appropriate professional accrediting agency. South Carolina Area Health Education Consortium One of the most pressing problems in health care delivery and disease prevention across the nation is in the distribution of health professionals. The Medical University serves as the "home" institution for the South Carolina Area Health Education Consortium (AHEC), a statewide consortium of teaching hospitals and rural health education centers. As Dean of the Medical University of South Carolina from 1971 to 1974, Dr. J. F. A. McManus provided the impetus for the establishment, with area hospital leaders, of a consortium of statewide hospitals for undergraduate and postgraduate medical education. Since 1972 South Carolina AHEC has influenced the education, supply, retention, and geographic distribution of health care professionals statewide, particularly in smaller, underserved communities. South Carolina AHEC programs include undergraduate and graduate level medical education, nursing, allied health, pharmacy and dental education, as well as all family practice residency programs in the state. South Carolina AHEC maintains partnerships between the university and communities across the state, as evidenced by more than 200 full-time faculty members and hundreds more part-time and consulting faculty who teach in South Carolina AHEC programs in virtually every county of the state. Growth in the past 40 years In the 93 years since the Medical University became a state institution, its growth was gradual up to the 1940s and phenomenal since then, particularly in the past 40 years. Student