AOE Compliance Connection

Welcome to the May edition of AOE Compliance Connection, AOE’s monthly newsletter. In this month’s newsletter, we provide you with a recap of last month’s ACCME 2022 Meeting: Learn to Thrive. We also spotlight AOE’s training and bootcamp services for your CE staff and new hires. Finally, we’ll go over the recent Program Activity Reporting System (PARS) updates so you and your team can stay current. Our monthly newsletter is just one of the many ways we keep you in the know! Make sure to follow our weekly compliance tips on Twitter and Facebook or email us at inquire@aoeconsulting.com with any questions. We love supporting you and your CE team!

Last month, the ACCME Annual Meeting took place in Chicago, in-person, and virtually. The theme, Learn to Thrive reflected the goal of this meeting: to address the challenges and opportunities surrounding the CE community and to “ascend through action, reflection, and continuous growth”. The meeting facilitated networking within the CE community, acknowledged professional achievements, and looked to the future of CE together, as a community.

AOE’s involvement was both live and virtual, as multiple AOE staff members participated in the larger CE conversation by presenting in multiple forums. AOE Director of Operations, Carlye Armstrong, CHCP and AOE Program Manager, Renea Marin, CHCP presented Best Practices in Management of a Hybrid Meeting. Armstrong also presented virtually, Better Together: The Top 5 Best-Practices for Working in Joint Providership. Finally, Marin presented virtually, Focusing on Inclusion and Leading to Great Change.

The first day of the conference centered around the question: What’s the future of continuing education? Keynote speakers addressed physician/clinician burnout, the Great Resignation, and the opportunities that comes from this kind of turbulence. An emphasis was placed on team-based curriculum, JEDI (Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion), and a workflow that has learning built in. The other significant focus on the first day of the conference was Standard 3 from the Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited CE, as 95% of the noncompliance found during accreditation is in Standard 3.

The second day of the conference centered on a different question: “How do we redesign healthcare in an inclusive and dynamic way?” This day’s keynote address was highly interactive and allowed attendees to work in groups to strategically make decisions. Another key focus was on the Achieves Outcomes Commendation Criteria. A panel of accredited providers who were compliant with C36, C37, and C38 answered attendee questions.

Day three was a focus on virtual sessions. Several virtual sessions were presented to the virtual audience including virtual research chats and virtual homerooms. Live attendees participated in the Public Forum: Using Healthy People 2030 to Support Data-Driven Outcomes for Accredited CE. This time was spent focusing on exchanging ideas for utilizing the Healthy People 2030 initiative to promote data-driven CE.

The ACCME’s Program and Activity Reporting System (PARS) undergoes regular updates related to improvements in efficiency, provider communication, and technological troubleshooting. Because PARS is an online application, these updates and enhancements are always available to users without them having to download anything. The ACCME posts these updates on their webpage for providers to access here.

Below, we’ve included a brief summary of the major PARS updates since 2020:

• Providers can now register CE activities to offer the American Board of Surgery (ABS) Continuous Certification (CC) points in multiple ways.
• As the American Board of Pediatrics (ABP) now offers ABP Maintenance of Certification (MOC) credit for internet searching and learning activities, CE providers can now register those activities in PARS.
• The American Board of Pathology (ABPath) has discontinued a credit type of its CC program and is no longer including that as an option in PARS.
• The American Board of Ophthalmology (ABO) has lifted a prior activity constraint so that now activities can be registered for both Improvement in Medical Practice and Patient Safety.
• Batch upload files will not be reviewed line by line by PARS; providers will be notified of incorrect learner records in multiple ways.
• Learner records with successful matches will be processed and will be available for review (via PDF).
• PARS now accepts up to 2,500 learner records in a single file (the previous limit was 1,000 records).
• Duplicate files will trigger PARS to display a confirmation message.
• Batch upload files are now processed offline and providers receive an email notification when the processing is complete.
• Providers can access an upload history page including data submission uploads from the prior 30 days.
• The PARS accreditation decision placard now includes the accreditation status and expiration date of the provider.