Expansion of Hospital Based CME is Required

Did anyone see the article in the USA Today highlighting a study that demonstrates that a significant population of patients are dying from the care they received in the hospital?

http://www.usatoday.com/yourlife/health/healthcare/2010-11-16-Medicare_N.htm#uslPageReturn


Before anyone starts to make negative comments – I agree, its only one study but it does bring up important topics worthy of discussion. The landscape is changing – doctors and hospitals have greater responsibilities than ever before yet must find efficient ways to work together to ensure that process improvement initiatives are successful.

There needs to be increased funding for hospital based PI CME and there needs to be increased collaboration among the hospital departments for formalized process improvement. The next step is to make PI CME more approachable to the physician participants that are already struggling to keep up with increased patient loads and sweeping changes in the profession.

As we move into the a new age that includes healthcare outcomes as a mandatory part of CME, I expect that additional studies such as the one discussed in the USA article will come to light with increased frequency – and eventually the success stories will emerge as well.

Harold I Magazine is the Vice President of Professional Education at Science Care and may be reached at harold.magazine@sciencecare.com. The views expressed in this Blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Science Care.