How Do Emergency Medicine Residency Programs Structure Their Clinical Competency Committees? A Survey

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Graduate Medical Training
• Program Evaluation

Background:

• The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) mandates Clinical Competency Committees (CCCs) for resident evaluation.
• ACGME guidelines allow flexibility in CCC structure, leading to varied program implementations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To survey the Council of Emergency Medicine Residency Directors (CORD) member programs regarding their CCC structures.
• To identify common and unique organizational approaches to CCC formation.

Main Methods:

• A descriptive study utilizing an 18-question survey distributed to CORD member programs.
• Analysis of survey responses using simple descriptive statistics.

Main Results:

• A 73% response rate (116/160 programs) was achieved.
• Most CCCs are chaired by associate/assistant program directors (71.6%) and include program directors (85.3%) and core faculty (78.5%) in attendance.
• CCCs primarily focus on milestone summaries (93.8%), with varied meeting frequencies (quarterly: 53.1%, monthly: 37%).

Conclusions:

• Significant variability exists in CCC structure and function across residency programs.
• Multiple strategies can be employed by programs to meet ACGME requirements.
• A single, standardized protocol for CCC development may be challenging to establish.