Web Site Boosts Accessibility to Continuing Education Courses

Having offered CME credits through joint sponsorship with other organizations for over a decade, the company has been awarded accreditation by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) as a provider of continuing medical education for physicians. With this accreditation, the company plans to expand its program to include additional risk management-focused activities in a user-friendly, easier-to-access venue.

ProMutual Group’s first online activities are multi-module courses on communication, which a review of the company’s claims revealed as a large contributor to malpractice litigation. Additional topics include terminating the professional relationship, best practices and more from ProMutual Group’s quarterly risk management newsletter, Perspectives on Clinical Risk Management. Currently offering eight activities, additional activities in a range of areas will be added to the company’s online CME collection on an ongoing basis. The cost for one AMA PRA Category 1 Credit will be $20, payable online with a credit card on a secure Web site.

The online accessibility of these CME activities allows a greater number of physicians across the country the freedom to participate in coursework at their leisure, thereby easing time constraints and reducing absences from their offices and patient care. While all physicians must obtain credits in order to maintain their licenses and hospital privileges, some states, such as Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania, require that a certain number of the total credits they earn be specific in risk management.

The importance of ongoing education and CME courses was highlighted in a ProMutual Group study of its own data that concluded that physicians who participated in risk management educational activities received significantly higher office appraisal scores than those who hadn’t.

“Achieving ACCME accreditation and creating the online CME activity Web site is all a part of our mission to inform, instruct, and positively influence physicians’ behavior in order to increase patient safety, improve patient care, and decrease medical-malpractice litigation,” said Maureen Mondor, vice president of risk management for ProMutual Group. “With over 30 years of experience, we are able to utilize our data and knowledge of risk issues in clinical practice to the benefit of the nation’s health care providers. We are excited to build upon our legacy of providing physicians with quality educational programs and tools to enhance their skills and knowledge.”