New Commendation Criteria Resources
We’ve developed several new resources in response to your requests, as part of our ongoing efforts to support the CME community’s successful adoption of the Menu of Criteria for Accreditation with Commendation.
Examples of Compliance and Noncompliance
When we Introduced the menu, we created examples of compliance and noncompliance based on our expectations. Now that we have made decisions using the menu, we can share actual examples submitted by CME providers seeking to achieve commendation. You can find these examples here:
Promotes Team-based Education
Addresses Public Health Priorities
Enhances Skills
Demonstrates Educational Leadership
Achieves Outcomes
Meeting Compliance Expectations
To help providers determine which criteria to fulfill, we thought it would useful to providers to offer observations from our decision-making process. Each criterion in the menu includes critical elements and standards, which describe expectations and how compliance is measured.
Frequency: Some of the criteria standards require that providers attest to meeting the criterion in a number or percentage of their activities, depending on the program size. For these criteria, we expect providers to demonstrate the frequency of activities that have met the critical elements. For these criteria, if the same content is repeated for different audiences, at different times or places, those count as separate instances. This measure is used for the Engages Teams, Engages Patients/Public, Engages Students, Advances Data Use, Addresses Population Health, Optimizes Communication Skills, Optimizes Technical/Procedural Skills, Utilizes Support Strategies, and Improves Performance criteria. (For the Creates Individualized Learning Plans criterion, evidence is demonstrated through a number of learners based on program size).
Diversity and breadth: Other criteria standards require that providers demonstrate compliance through a specified number of examples of activities or initiatives. With these examples, we expect providers to demonstrate the diversity and breadth of approaches they used to meet the critical elements. For these criteria, providers need to submit examples that are completely different from each other. Different iterations of the same activity content repeated for different audiences at different times and places, would not count as separate examples. This measure is used for the Collaborates Effectively, Engages in Research/Scholarship, Supports CPD for CME Team, Demonstrates Creativity/Innovation, Improves Healthcare Quality, and Improves Patient/Community Health criteria.
We have included this information in a new FAQ.
More Resources
Menu of Criteria for Accreditation with Commendation Transition Report: This report, released in August, includes background information, data from the two-year transition period of decision-making under the menu, lessons learned, and minor modifications we have made to simplify and clarify the standards and critical elements of a few criteria.
Commendation Resources Webpage: This webpage provides links to videos, FAQs, examples of compliance and noncompliance, and other resources.