California Northstate University reaches milestone with new accreditation
Elk Grove-based California Northstate Hospital’s College of Medicine was granted full accreditation this week in what officials are calling a milestone for the southern Sacramento County campus.
The college’s accreditation was awarded Monday by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, or LCME. The U.S Department of Education-recognized body is responsible for accrediting medical education programs in the U.S. and Canada that lead to an M.D. degree.
“We are proud to reach this pivotal milestone and energized by the opportunities ahead to expand, innovate, and elevate the future of healthcare education,” said Dr. Alvin Cheung, California Northstate’s president, in prepared remarks.
The accreditation by the committee comes amid California Northstate’s plans to build a $1 billion teaching hospital and campus in Natomas on the site of the former Arco Arena. California Northstate also opened a nursing school in Rancho Cordova in 2024.
Founded in Elk Grove in 2007, California Northstate earned preliminary accreditation in 2015 and provisional status — one step below full accreditation — four years later.
But the road to that milestone was rocky, marked by probation and lawsuits.
In 2022, the LCME — the same body that granted California Northstate its new status this week — placed the university on probation for undisclosed reasons. University officials at the time stressed that its students would not be impacted by the ruling work as it “works closely to achieve full compliance with all LCME standards in the shortest time possible.”
Parents of a trio of students in 2023 filed a class action lawsuit alleging California Northstate defrauded them when they were promised admission to the university’s medical school after enrolling in an undergraduate program, only to be denied entry.
A major data breach in 2023 prompted another lawsuit by a former California Northstate professor and an applicant to the university, claiming California Northstate was responsible for the breach.
In 2024, California Northstate was sued again, this time, for allegedly withholding meal breaks and overtime pay from employees.
This story was originally published July 22, 2025 at 12:08 PM.
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