Getting Started: Planning for Commendation

Providers who have earned Accreditation with Commendation attribute their success to proactive planning. When you plan your CME activities with Commendation in mind, you’ll find it’s easier to achieve your goal. To help you get started, Mindi Daiga, Vice President of Accreditation at the Pri-Med Institute, shares advice drawn from her own professional experience:

• At the start of your reaccreditation term or as soon as you are able, create your own Menu of Commendation Criteria checklist. Use it to record what you’re already doing successfully. Then, use it each time you plan and deliver a new activity.
  
  
• When you plan a new activity, look to the Menu for additional Commendation Criteria that will benefit your learners. The ACCME Accreditation Requirements document can help. It lists the Rationale for each Commendation Criterion in the Menu, alongside the Critical Elements that ACCME requires. Those Critical Elements can serve as your guide, helping you plan and execute CME to better meet learners’ needs.
  
  
• Let ACCME’s Program and Activity Reporting System (PARS) help you monitor your progress. When you enter a new activity, PARS will give you the option to tag your activity for Commendation Criteria. This tagging feature is designed just for you and shows you what’s required for any Criteria you tag. The information is not used or reviewed by the ACCME.
  
  
• When your CME activity ends, schedule 30 minutes to write about the Criteria your activity achieved. It’s a good habit to put in place to make sure you’ve collected all the information you need to demonstrate compliance.