Alternatives May Be Built in for Tackling MOC Needs

GRAPEVINE, TEX. – Hospitalists don’t need to go out and do a lot of extra work to complete the Performance Practice Assessment portion of their maintenance of certification requirements.

Dr. Kelly J. Caverzagie, a hospitalist at Henry Ford Hospital who consults with the American Board of Internal Medicine on maintenance of certification (MOC) issues, said hospitalists can generally use work they are already doing to complete the Performance Practice Assessment, or Part 4, of the MOC process. Part 4 requires physicians to earn 20 points by completing either a Practice Improvement Module (PIM) or an Approved Quality Improvement (AQI) Pathway.

For hospitalists who are involved in a large-scale quality improvement project like the Society of Hospital Medicine’s Project BOOST (Better Outcomes for Older Adults Through Safe Transitions), they only need to complete the AQI project report, provide a description of the project, and report on their experience and the project’s impact. Physicians must have participated in the activity within the past 24 months and the sponsoring organization must verify their participation.

"The goal is to reduce the redundancy," Dr. Caverzagie said at the annual meeting of the Society of Hospital Medicine.

So far, the ABIM has preapproved Project BOOST, as well as the SHM’s VTE Prevention Collaborative and Glycemic Control Initiative project for the AQI Pathway. ABIM has approved a number of other quality improvement projects in other specialty areas.

Hospitalists also can receive MOC credit for quality improvement activities that are specific to their hospitals. For example, physicians who have access to aggregate quality data and are getting ready to begin a quality improvement project in their hospital can use the ABIM’s Self-Directed PIM. Those physicians who have completed their project within the past 24 months can use the Completed Project PIM.

With both of these PIMs, physicians have the chance to choose their own measures, as long as they have been approved or endorsed by a national organization like the National Quality Forum, are drawn from evidence-based guidelines, or are locally developed resource-use or process-efficiency measures. In addition to the hospital’s own data, physicians who are completing either the Self-Director or Completed-Project PIMs also can use data from health plans, medical societies, national or regional registries, and physician recognition programs, Dr. Caverzagie said.

Hospitalists also can use the hospital-based PIM, but that is being phased out and will eventually be rolled into the Self-Directed and Completed Project PIMs, Dr. Caverzagie advised.

Other PIMs that could be useful for hospitalists include the Clinical Supervision PIM for physicians who supervise trainees; the Communication With Referring Physicians PIM, which is helpful for hospitalists who work in a comanagement service or a preoperative clinic; and the Essentials of Quality Improvement PIM, which allows physicians with purely research or administrative roles to fulfill Part 4 requirements.

Dr. Caverzagie said that he had no conflicts to disclose.

GRAPEVINE, TEX. – Hospitalists don’t need to go out and do a lot of extra work to complete the Performance Practice Assessment portion of their maintenance of certification requirements.

Dr. Kelly J. Caverzagie, a hospitalist at Henry Ford Hospital who consults with the American Board of Internal Medicine on maintenance of certification (MOC) issues, said hospitalists can generally use work they are already doing to complete the Performance Practice Assessment, or Part 4, of the MOC process. Part 4 requires physicians to earn 20 points by completing either a Practice Improvement Module (PIM) or an Approved Quality Improvement (AQI) Pathway.

For hospitalists who are involved in a large-scale quality improvement project like the Society of Hospital Medicine’s Project BOOST (Better Outcomes for Older Adults Through Safe Transitions), they only need to complete the AQI project report, provide a description of the project, and report on their experience and the project’s impact. Physicians must have participated in the activity within the past 24 months and the sponsoring organization must verify their participation.

"The goal is to reduce the redundancy," Dr. Caverzagie said at the annual meeting of the Society of Hospital Medicine.

So far, the ABIM has preapproved Project BOOST, as well as the SHM’s VTE Prevention Collaborative and Glycemic Control Initiative project for the AQI Pathway. ABIM has approved a number of other quality improvement projects in other specialty areas.

Hospitalists also can receive MOC credit for quality improvement activities that are specific to their hospitals. For example, physicians who have access to aggregate quality data and are getting ready to begin a quality improvement project in their hospital can use the ABIM’s Self-Directed PIM. Those physicians who have completed their project within the past 24 months can use the Completed Project PIM.

With both of these PIMs, physicians have the chance to choose their own measures, as long as they have been approved or endorsed by a national organization like the National Quality Forum, are drawn from evidence-based guidelines, or are locally developed resource-use or process-efficiency measures. In addition to the hospital’s own data, physicians who are completing either the Self-Director or Completed-Project PIMs also can use data from health plans, medical societies, national or regional registries, and physician recognition programs, Dr. Caverzagie said.

Hospitalists also can use the hospital-based PIM, but that is being phased out and will eventually be rolled into the Self-Directed and Completed Project PIMs, Dr. Caverzagie advised.

Other PIMs that could be useful for hospitalists include the Clinical Supervision PIM for physicians who supervise trainees; the Communication With Referring Physicians PIM, which is helpful for hospitalists who work in a comanagement service or a preoperative clinic; and the Essentials of Quality Improvement PIM, which allows physicians with purely research or administrative roles to fulfill Part 4 requirements.

Dr. Caverzagie said that he had no conflicts to disclose.

GRAPEVINE, TEX. – Hospitalists don’t need to go out and do a lot of extra work to complete the Performance Practice Assessment portion of their maintenance of certification requirements.

Dr. Kelly J. Caverzagie, a hospitalist at Henry Ford Hospital who consults with the American Board of Internal Medicine on maintenance of certification (MOC) issues, said hospitalists can generally use work they are already doing to complete the Performance Practice Assessment, or Part 4, of the MOC process. Part 4 requires physicians to earn 20 points by completing either a Practice Improvement Module (PIM) or an Approved Quality Improvement (AQI) Pathway.

For hospitalists who are involved in a large-scale quality improvement project like the Society of Hospital Medicine’s Project BOOST (Better Outcomes for Older Adults Through Safe Transitions), they only need to complete the AQI project report, provide a description of the project, and report on their experience and the project’s impact. Physicians must have participated in the activity within the past 24 months and the sponsoring organization must verify their participation.

"The goal is to reduce the redundancy," Dr. Caverzagie said at the annual meeting of the Society of Hospital Medicine.

So far, the ABIM has preapproved Project BOOST, as well as the SHM’s VTE Prevention Collaborative and Glycemic Control Initiative project for the AQI Pathway. ABIM has approved a number of other quality improvement projects in other specialty areas.

Hospitalists also can receive MOC credit for quality improvement activities that are specific to their hospitals. For example, physicians who have access to aggregate quality data and are getting ready to begin a quality improvement project in their hospital can use the ABIM’s Self-Directed PIM. Those physicians who have completed their project within the past 24 months can use the Completed Project PIM.

With both of these PIMs, physicians have the chance to choose their own measures, as long as they have been approved or endorsed by a national organization like the National Quality Forum, are drawn from evidence-based guidelines, or are locally developed resource-use or process-efficiency measures. In addition to the hospital’s own data, physicians who are completing either the Self-Director or Completed-Project PIMs also can use data from health plans, medical societies, national or regional registries, and physician recognition programs, Dr. Caverzagie said.

Hospitalists also can use the hospital-based PIM, but that is being phased out and will eventually be rolled into the Self-Directed and Completed Project PIMs, Dr. Caverzagie advised.

Other PIMs that could be useful for hospitalists include the Clinical Supervision PIM for physicians who supervise trainees; the Communication With Referring Physicians PIM, which is helpful for hospitalists who work in a comanagement service or a preoperative clinic; and the Essentials of Quality Improvement PIM, which allows physicians with purely research or administrative roles to fulfill Part 4 requirements.

Dr. Caverzagie said that he had no conflicts to disclose.