OHSU Receives High Praise From National Accrediting Council

Following a rigorous review by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), the Division of Graduate Medical Education (GME) in the Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine has received a very high accreditation rating. Its Web-based learning tool, The Competent Physician program, also was deemed exemplary.

In renewing OHSU's accreditation, the council applauded the institution's vigorous and well-supported effort to improve the quality and effectiveness of institutional oversight, and it commended the university for its "best practices ... and excellence in graduate medial education."

"The ACGME letter OHSU received is the most laudatory accreditation correspondence that I have ever read," said OHSU School of Medicine Dean Joe Robertson, M.D., M.B.A.

The division's The Competent Physician program was given special recognition. Designed to educate residents, fellows and faculty in the ACGME-mandated areas of competence - patient care, medical knowledge, interpersonal and communication skills, professionalism, practice-based learning and improvement, and systems-based practice - the program teaches clinicians self-reflection and to keep a journal. It uses scenarios to illustrate behaviors, positive and negative, and interactive components allow users to be evaluated based on their performance.

Donald Girard, M.D., who serves as associate dean for graduate medical education said, "This very positive outcome would not have been possible without the dedication and major investment of the members of our institutional review subcommittee. It was a real team effort and a team win." Girard is also associate dean for continuing medical education and professor of medicine (general internal medicine and geriatrics) in the OHSU School of Medicine.

OHSU sponsors continuing professional development activities for physicians and other health care specialists in a wide variety of clinical areas, with special emphasis on primary care. Programs draw on the clinical and academic strengths of OHSU faculty and are held throughout the year in many different locations and formats. For more information, please visit www.ohsu.edu/som/cme/

The ACGME is a private, nonprofit council that evaluates and accredits medical residency programs in the United States. In academic year 2004-05, there were 8,037 ACGME-accredited residency programs in 26 specialties, 84 subspecialties, and transitional year programs. The number of active full-time and part-time residents for academic year 2004-05 was 101,810.


 


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