Continuing Medical Education

The Continuing Medical Education program's purpose is to provide education and advocacy in support of best practice for safe and effective patient care. The program provides evidence-based educational activities focusing on advances in medicine, new technology, research, and changes in health care. The overall goal is to enhance physician knowledge, competence, and performance in practice to improve patient safety and outcomes.

The CME program activities are designed to serve the professional and educational needs of physicians. While the principle intended audience is the medical staff at Lakeview Hospital, the program is open to all interested physicians and mid-level practitioners in the medical community regardless of hospital affiliation. Attendance by other Lakeview Hospital health care team professionals and employees is encouraged as appropriate for the scope of practice addressed in the activity.

The CME program content is determined by ongoing assessment of the target audience's educational needs. The needs assessment process may include, but is not limited to: requests from physicians, hospital departments or administration, including performance improvement, patient safety and risk management; physician surveys; program evaluation tools; core measures and publicly reported data; and quality/peer review activities. Content can include new developments in the field of medicine, changes in healthcare regulations, practice management education, ethics, and evidence-based medicine. Content is also influenced by core service lines, strategic plan initiatives, the population served and the hospital mission.

The CME program activities are presented in two formats:

1. Live courses focusing on a particular topic or public health issue and;
2. Regularly Scheduled Series (RSS) such as grand rounds, case conferences and tumor boards.

The activities are designed to meet the educational needs of the main specialties represented on the medical staff. Occasional special seminars may be arranged during the year for CME credit to address certain issues of interest to the medical staff.

The expected result of the CME program is for physicians to be able to apply new medical knowledge and new treatment modalities to their practices; improve their performance in practice; and as a result improve patient care outcomes.

We will measure these expected results by:

1. Asking physicians to commit to changes in their practice or behavior; with applying the knowledge they have gained;
2. Having physicians describe how they will apply the knowledge they have gained into their practices; have the opportunity to explore new treatment modalities;
3. Using hospital measures to identify specific performance change and/or improvements to patient care and safety; make a commitment to change their practice or behavior as a result of the educational intervention; and/or
4. Use Quality reporting to see results for patient care outcomes; show improvement that impacts specific performance measures and/or patient care outcomes through quality and patient safety measures.