Residency

Tip of the week: Surfing the ACGME website

Residency Program Connection, August 24, 2010

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The ACGME website is full of helpful information—if you know where to look for it. The following tips are a road map for getting the most out of the site and boosting your productivity.

Review and comment. Find out about changes to specialty requirements in this section. To get there, hover your mouse over the “Review and Comment” tab in the left menu bar and then click “Program Requirements.”

Here, you can review proposed changes to the ACGME specialty requirements that are under revision. If you’re checking this area frequently, you’ll always know when changes are coming down the pipeline.

Approved but not in effect. The ACGME posts new versions of requirements in your specialty’s section. To get there, click on the “Review Committees” tab on the left menu bar and pick your specialty.

Click on “Program Requirements.” At first, everything may seem status quo, but you’re not in the clear yet. Scroll down to the “Approved but Not in Effect” section.

As its name implies, this is where the ACGME posts approved requirements that have not taken effect yet. If this section does not appear, it means there are no new requirements. If your site visit is close to the date in which the new requirements take effect, call the RRC and ask on which version it will base your review.

Additionally, new requirements often mean a new PIF so check to see whether the RRC updated that document, as well.

Check these two sections every time you log on to the ACGME website—not just when there’s a site visit on the horizon. Doing so gives you an idea about upcoming changes and helps you begin to prepare for them.

Tip: The phrase “effective July 2011” means the new requirements need to be fully implemented in your program by then. That’s not the day you start to think about how you’re going to incorporate them.

The inside scoop on site visits. The ACGME website also offers some insider advice on preparing for site visits. Under the “Site Visit” tab on the left menu bar, find information about the accreditation process, field staff bios, and site visit FAQs.

Perhaps the most helpful tool for directors and coordinators is the PIF tutorial in the Accreditation Data System (ADS). 

 

This week’s tip is from Residency Program Alert.
 



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