Identifying Potential Partners
Quick Takeaways
• Identify an organizational goal you want to achieve
• Match that goal to a Criterion on the Menu of Accreditation with Commendation
• List the people or partners who can help
• Add a target date and begin making connections
“CME providers don’t just work within one setting—we work across hospitals, communities, and health departments. Applying for Commendation is about understanding how you fit into this larger system.”
Accreditation with Commendation encourages education that really moves the needle. That kind of meaningful change often happens through collaboration—identifying what matters most in your community and building partnerships that can support your work.
What goals would you like to achieve?
To begin, consider your priorities:
- Are there goals in your organization’s strategic plan you would like to achieve?
- Which Criteria on the Menu of Commendation can help you achieve them?
Let your goals guide you. From there, you can identify the Criteria—and the people—that can help move the work forward.
Who can help you reach these goals?
You may have more potential partners than you realize. To explore what this can look like in practice, we spoke with Sandie Manning, MAEd, Associate Director of CME and Pharmacy at Wake Area Health Education Center (AHEC), which is Accredited with Commendation by the Southern States CME Collaborative (SSCC) and provides CME to rural hospitals in nine North Carolina counties.
“Even if your CME team is a team of one, you have resources—your director, your RSS [Regularly Scheduled Series] coordinators, physicians, and others across your organization,” she said. “Educate your director about what you do, bring in a physician leader, and start building support from there.” Sandie recommends identifying key partners, including any of the following:
- Physicians. A physician leader can help you identify residents, students, or quality initiatives to integrate into your CME. They can also serve as your voice and open doors you might not be able to open on your own.
- Medical librarians. Librarians in your network can locate evidence that helps you understand the unique health needs of your community and that supports your educational goals.
- Public health officials. Public health officials can connect your CME to population health initiatives and local data from your community. It’s in their interest to partner with you, as your CME can be the vital link that helps them reach clinicians.
- Quality improvement (QI) teams. QI teams can be valuable partners because they have data that measures change over time— data that can help you demonstrate your impact for the Achieves Outcomes category on the Menu of Accreditation with Commendation.
“CME providers don’t just work within one setting—we work across hospitals, communities, and health departments,” Sandie said. “Applying for Commendation is about understanding how you fit into this larger system.”
Seeing how your CME program connects to others can show you where support already exists and where new partnerships may be possible. Make a plan and reach out to people in your community who can help.
