Importance of "ACGME Accreditation" of Residencies & Fellowships

I have heard someone make the weirdest pronunciation of the term - "ACGME" LOL - For those who do not know, ACGME is an acronym and stands for : "Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education"

I have already mentioned before that the term "Graduate Medical Education" implies Residencies and Fellowships.

The ACGME is basically a private, non-profit organization that certifies the quality of residency /fellowship programs and has become a trusted word on quality for various Medical specialty boards to grant their board certification status to residents from such ACGME-approved programs.

Q. So Why is Accreditation of a Residency / Fellowship Program by ACGME important ?

1. Being trained at an ACGME accredited program is pre-requisite for getting Board Certified in that specialty - and that is true for most specialties. So if your program loses its accreditation status, you stand to be incomplete on the basic requirement for board certification.

2. Most states need a residency / fellowship done from an accredited program for issuing a state physician license

3. Later on, in the job market, you will find most job positions needing a Board Eligible and / Or Board Certified Physician in a given specialty

4. If a program loses its accreditation status, that adversely affects funding from Medicare for its residents, which puts it at a big risk of closure.

That's why, its important to know the accreditation status of a residency / fellowship program while considering admissions. Besides the accreditation status, knowing the accreditation cycle length is also important - here's why:

ACGME conducts site visits and then grants a period of Accreditation - ranging from 1 year to 5 years , after which they come back for a visit (called the accreditation cycle). Its easy to guess that the more the years of accreditation granted - the more confidence ACGME has in the programs ability to fulfill quality residency teaching. Thus, on your residency & fellowship interviews, it's not enough to merely ask "Is your Program accredited by the ACGME?" - you can appear smarter and also ask - "What is the length of the accreditation cycle granted to your program ?"

You can easily find all accreditation information about a program on the public databases at the ACGME website.

Hmmm....Recently, the Obs-Gynecology Residency program at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center of Odessa was placed on probation - meaning ACGME has warned them will be closely monitoring their quality improvements in resident coaching. Failing to improve could result in loss of accreditation. Read the story here.
On the other hand, the Family Medicine residency program at Rapid City Regional Hospital, South Dakota won a full five years of accreditation in 2008, implying it lands on the good side of ACGME - Read Here.