Without question, resident physicians are integral to the mission and success of any academic medical center. Our recent visit by the Clinical Learning Environment Review (CLER) – part of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), which sets the standards for graduate medical education – has helped to reinforce that point.
The ACGME recognizes the public’s need for a physician workforce capable of meeting the challenges of our rapidly evolving health care environment.
Under the CLER program, every teaching hospitals undergoes a site visit every 24 to 36 months as part of the ongoing process of ACGME accreditation. The feedback provided by the CLER program is designed to improve how teaching hospitals engage resident and fellow physicians in learning to provide safe, high quality patient care.
CLER provides U.S. teaching hospitals with feedback in six key areas: patient safety; health care quality; care transitions; supervision; fatigue management and mitigation; and professionalism.
Preliminary feedback suggests that our three-day CLER visit was quite successful. Thanks to Dr. Chandra Are, associate dean for graduate medical education and designated institutional official (DIO) for gradate medical education, and Vicki Hamm, longtime administrative director of the Office of GME, for their leadership in preparing for the site visit and in overseeing our GME programs.
We look forward to the final report from the CLER visit and the opportunities for further opportunities to improve our programs that always result from such program reviews.
When you explore our residency program, it’s easy to see what a thriving enterprise it is. Currently, there are 558 residents and fellows in 56 different residency and fellowship programs delivering frontline care in our hospitals and clinics. That’s an increase of 4.3 percent over last year’s total of 535.
That number will continue to climb in the coming years as we add residencies in physical medicine and rehabilitation (16 residents in four-year program) and dermatology (6-9 residents in four-year program). We also plan to add several fellowships in pediatrics through our strong partnership with Children’s Hospital & Medical Center.
It’s long been known that about half of all physicians wind up practicing within 100 miles of where they do their residencies. That shows how critical residents are to meeting the health care needs of Nebraska.
The UNMC Alumni Association has recently created a subgroup for current UNMC residents and fellows, as well as those who have previously completed such programs. They recognize the value of the university maintaining a connection with these physicians, as it’s very likely that many of them will remain in Nebraska and become important contributors to our state’s health care delivery.
I look forward to seeing many of our resident and fellow alumni at our annual alumni weekend, which is coming up Oct. 20-21.
Earlier this summer, the novel UNMC/Nebraska Medicine funding and oversight model for graduate medical education, which was developed and implemented with the formation of Nebraska Medicine, was highlighted in the American Journal of Surgery. It has been cited as an example that other academic medical centers and clinical enterprises can emulate.
Creation of the funding model was possible because of the strong and positive relationship between our health system and the College of Medicine. The health system’s values include a strong commitment to education and it recognizes the key role that residents and fellows play in patient safety and quality.
We are not only an institution with a robust commitment to graduate medical education, but UNMC has strong presence in the leadership of the ACGME. In 2016, UNMC’s Dr. Rowen Zetterman was appointed chair of the ACGME governing board and is serving a two-year term. When he completes his term in 2018, UNMC Chancellor Dr. Jeff Gold is slated to succeed him as chair.
I am proud to be part of an organization that is a leader in graduate medical education. We truly value our residents and fellows and should all be proud of our GME programs.
Enjoy a wonderful fall and thanks for all your ongoing efforts to make us world class. They are greatly appreciated.