Learning to Share
GRAPEVINE, Texas — Sitting in the third row of a large meeting room, Robin Buckley, MD, FHM, was soaking in the morning portion of the “ABIM Maintenance of Certification (MOC) Learning Session” pre-course, clicking her keypad with answers to questions and making mental notes this morning at HM11.
Dr. Buckley, medical director of hospitalist services at 72-bed Scott & White Healthcare in Round Rock, Texas, has to recertify in 2012, so she is getting an early start. One of nine pre-courses held annually, the learning session offers 6.5 CME credits.
“I’m really excited about sharing the information with my group, especially the questions focused on quality,” says Dr. Buckley, who has been a hospitalist since 2004 and joined her expanding HM group in 2008. “I want to apply the information to our clinical practice, because I think it’s going to make us better.”
She’s also considering the Focused Practice in Hospital Medicine (FPHM) pathway, and used the pre-course to understand the specialized MOC pathway better. The main concerns, she says, are the added cost and the every-three-year requirement of the Performance Improvement Modules (PIM).
“The three-year PIM cycle makes a lot of sense,” Dr. Buckley says, noting she is “encouraged” to learn ABIM has approved three of SHM’s quality projects to count toward the MOC requirement. Although she might still recertify through the traditional internal-medicine MOC next year, she definitely has the FPHM on the radar.
“Maybe in a couple years,” Dr. Buckley says. “The PIM templates will be extremely helpful and encourage me to do it even more. The FPHM shows dedication to the field.”
