ABOUT CME

Purpose

The purpose of Prairie’s Continuing Medical Education (CME) program is to provide continuing medical education with content that is based on the identified practices gaps of the learners. We use a collaborative approach involving quality assurance, learners and administrators to improve the performance of the medical community members we serve, as well as increase the competence of health care providers. Prairie’s CME program also provides educational information to the general public relating to specialized and general medical education.

Content Areas

Prairie’s CME program strives to provide educational activities that are based on identified practice gaps through a formal needs assessment involving the educational facilitator and the CME planners and reviewers. Educational content is designed to increase medical staff competence, performance and/or patient care outcomes and is reviewed in advance to minimize any conflict of interest that may exist. The scope of our CME program includes the entire range of cardiac, vascular, and general medical care including prevention, diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation, quality improvement and cost effectiveness.

Target Audience

The audience for our educational programs includes physicians, nurses, ancillary medical personnel and the general public. Our physician CME program extends to all physicians in the community providing cardiovascular care, family practice, internal medicine, as well as all other specialties. Our educational programs are focused on the educational needs of general and specialized physicians as well as applicable ancillary staff.

Types of Activities

Educational activities are provided at CME events based on the identified practice gaps of the learners during the planning process, utilizing quality assurance personnel data, the educational facilitator, CME planners and CME reviewers. The faculty and activities are chosen based on these assessments, and gaps are identified in the learners’ competence, performance and/or patient outcomes. A variety of educational formats are utilized including lectures, question and answer sessions, enduring materials, hands on workshops, panel discussions, live case demonstrations and individual case presentations.

Expected Results of the Program

Prairie’s Continuing Medical Education Program will provide high quality educational programs resulting in increased physician competence and improved physician, nurse and ancillary medical staff performance and clinical behavior.

Accreditation Information

Prairie/HSHS has been reviewed by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME®) and awarded accreditation as a provider of continuing medical education (CME) for physicians. Accreditation in the ACCME System seeks to assure the medical community and the public that Prairie/HSHS delivers education that is relevant to clinicians’ needs, evidence-based, evaluated for its effectiveness, and independent of commercial influence.