Let’s Adopt a National Model for Overall CME Program Improvement

ACCME requires all accredited CME providers to “Evaluate the effectiveness of its overall CME program and make improvements to the program” (Element 2.5). So how do we do this improvement stuff? I hear this question asked over and over. I hear interesting variations in the interpretation of what this means. We can change that ambiguity. We can adopt a common approach to program improvement.

Having a systematic, sustainable, repeatable approach to improvement can be done by each of us regardless of the size or scope of our CME program. Doing so would:

• Create a common nomenclature we could use to communicate about our improvement initiatives.
• Develop a common skill set and approach to improvement we could implement in any setting.
• Produce sustainable improvements in our CME operations we could share with colleagues in other settings that would raise the quality bar for everybody.
• Be a systematic way to evaluate the effectiveness of our overall CME program we could use to show value to our organization and report to the ACCME.
• Be a systematic way to continuously make improvements to our overall CME program we could use to show value to our own organization and report to the ACCME.

Such an approach to improvement does not have to be an expensive or extremely time consuming effort. Adopting a simple, systematic, sustainable, repeatable approach to improvement is within our reach.  An increasing number of healthcare settings around the country are engaged in such efforts right now.  Industry has been doing this for decades.

Interested in becoming an early adopter? Contact me at ctlassoc@mindspring.com to learn about getting  started in transforming your CME operation into a culture of improvement and join in the effort to create a common national approach to CME program improvement.