AOE Compliance Connection – April 2019 Newsletter

Welcome to the April ’19 edition of AOE Compliance Connection, AOE’s monthly newsletter. If you’ve ever wondered what all goes into managing an RSS activity, keep reading! This month, we’re featuring RSS activities, along with a new project the ACCME is launching. And as always, you’ll find our board bulletin updates and upcoming events sections.

AOE exists to serve you and your CME/CE team, and this newsletter is just one of the ways we do that. Please visit aoeconsulting.com for weekly compliance tips, CME/CE news, and information about the AOE team.

We’ve previously shared some practical tips and best practices for day-to-day management of a CME program as well as specific strategies for managing enduring activities. This month we’d like to highlight some ideas for practical management of regularly scheduled series (RSS) activities.

First of all, let’s address what makes an RSS unique – how it is different than a course. An RSS is defined as a live course with the following planned requirements:

• A series with multiple sessions
• The sessions occur on an ongoing basis (e.g. weekly, monthly, quarterly)
• The activity is planned and presented to the accredited provider’s professional staff

Common examples of an RSS include grand rounds, tumor boards and morbidity and mortality conferences.

Tips and Best Practices for Management of an RSS Activity

Gap Analysis/Needs Assessment: The educational planning for an RSS should identify the professional practice gap(s) and corresponding educational need(s) for the entire initiative. As well, there should be an over-arching set of learning objectives for the RSS initiative, that guide design of individual sessions that fall under its umbrella. While some RSS activities, such as a tumor board, are very focused and specific, others may include a much broader focus.

Tracking: There are generally a lot of moving pieces when it comes to an RSS, especially those occurring weekly. While tracking represents an additional step, we’ve found it to be instrumental in ensuring all components are in place. Typically, we recommend a single Excel file for one RSS with multiple workbooks to include the following:

• RSS Overview: This workbook is a running list of all upcoming dates and whether specific sessions are cancelled (e.g. holiday). This often proves helpful when compiling cumulative data for annual reporting purposes.
• Disclosure Grid: This workbook is utilized to track disclosure information collected, determination of relevance and resolution according to an individual’s role(s), if applicable.
• Speaker-Presenter Tracker: This workbook represents all materials being collected from presenters. It serves to document that items have been received and whether or not materials have been approved or if edits are required. It also helps facilitate follow-up with upcoming presenters.

Evaluation Data: Depending on an accredited provider’s system(s) for data management, this will look different for every CME program. As a general guide, it is often best to summarize activity evaluation data for an RSS on a quarterly basis. Summarizing data on a quarterly basis ensures that key metrics (i.e. free from commercial bias) are monitored in a timely fashion. For providers who do not have electronic systems in place, quarterly evaluation summarization also helps to streamline the workflow for those managing compliance of accredited activities.

Credit Issuance: As with evaluation data, an accredited provider’s system(s) for data management vary. As such, this step of the process will again look different across CME programs. Similar to evaluation data, unless it is feasible to issue credit after each session, credit issuance once per quarter is a recommended best practice.

Annual Review: As a best practice, an RSS activity should be reviewed on an annual basis. This review should incorporate analysis of evaluation data and review of the gap analysis/needs assessment and overall learning objectives. It is recommended that providers consider whether or not it makes sense to continue with an RSS activity and if any updates are necessary.

Reporting: Each RSS should be reported to the ACCME as one activity keeping with the following guidelines:

• The cumulative number of hours for all sessions within a series equals the number of hours for that activity.
• Each physician is counted as a learner for each session he/she attends in the series.

These are just a few tips and best practices. We know that providers of different sizes and situations have their own fantastic tools, resources and other best practices. We hope that what we’ve shared helps prompt new ideas for improving the efficiency, organization, and operation of your CME program.

Last month, the ACCME was approved for an award that will fund a project on patient-centered CME. The Eugene Washington PCORI Engagement Award program is an initiative of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). The ACCME has made the advancement of the role of “patients as partners” in CME one of its main focus points over the past few years, as evidenced by new Commendation Criteria C24: Patient/public representatives are engaged in the planning and delivery of CME.

These newly awarded PCORI funds will support “Learning Together: Engaging Patients in Professional Development of Physicians and Healthcare Teams”, a 12-month initiative that will include live and online resources. In the development of this initiative, patients participated in the planning and implementation components, and will also serve as speakers at live events and participants in live and video-recorded interviews.

President and CEO of the ACCME, Graham McMahon, commented about the award: “We are honored to receive a Eugene Washington PCORI Engagement Award. We know that healthcare is increasingly practiced in teams—and that patients need to be recognized and respected as part of the team. To build meaningful inclusion of patients in the care environment, we need to also focus on the learning environment. With this award, we can design and deliver resources that will help us create a CE community that not only aims to improve patient care, but strives toward that goal with patients as partners.”

For more information about PCORI and the associated awards, please visit the Eugene Washington PCORI Engagement Awards page.

Late last month, the ACPE implemented updates and performed maintenance on the Provider Web Tool (PWT) and CPE Monitor to increase overall security within the ACPE system.

What does this mean for providers? Going forward, ACPE-accredited providers will need to pass through a two-stage login authentication that requires an email and cell phone to be entered. Once submitted, the user can choose how to receive their authentication code (via email or text) and will only have five minutes before the code expires. If login is not successful during those five minutes, the user will need to begin the login process again.

In addition to the security improvements, a few items in the PWT have also been updated:

1. A list of competencies (for the pharmacist and pharmacy technician) can now be found in the learning objectives section.  Providers can select the competencies that will be applicable to their CPE activity.
2. A summary of the ADF Change Request Form is now available. This form provides a summary of the submitted ADF changes requested.

If you have questions or are experiencing errors or other issues, please email the ACPE directly at pwt@acpe-accredit.org for the Provider Web Tool or cpemonitor@acpe-accredit.org for CPE Monitor in order to request support.