The American Hospital Association's Physician Alliance has issued a new report with recommendations for how continuing medical education improvements can be made to increase value to hospitals.
"Hospitals account for a large proportion of the CME-granting programs with about 35 percent of the activities and 38 percent of the credit hours offered in 2013."
“CME allows physicians to reach their full potential both as caregivers and leaders of the health care field,” said AHA Senior Vice President John Combes, MD. “We have an opportunity to use CME strategically to achieve the goals not only of individual physicians but the entire delivery system to meet the needs of the patients and communities we serve.”
Additional notes from the report include the following steps to increase value:
- Hospital associations should share best practices
- Explore partnerships with medical societies and others to increase awareness of CME
- Hospitals and health systems should facilitate greater communication between the CME professionals, physician leadership, and organization leadership to improve CME offerings. Organizations should develop physician champions to drive engagement of the staff, and encourage the use of data from community health assessments to spur education on population health issues.
- The accreditation community should review accreditation standards for areas of improvement and simplification. For example, accrediting bodies should consider accreditation for smaller group projects that address current physician work. Hospital leaders also recommended using technology to streamline the paperwork burden in meeting accreditation requirements.
- Finally, as health care delivery is changing, so to must the educational system. Greater use of performance-based CME, moving away from time-based activities, and increasing the diversity in accredited programs to adapt to the changing environment should all be considered.
The full report can be accessed at the following link:
AHA Report on Continuing Medical Education
