Health Assessment Recertification Project for Diversely Trained Clinicians (MOC Part IV & PA-QI)

User-Friendly Recertification Health Assessment Project for Diverse Clinicians—easy-to-complete quality improvement activity to help clinicians improve health assessment documentation in medical records (electronic or paper-based).  Download the User Guide and interactive PDF file to your own computer for data collection and processing. We encourage yet do not require clinicians to work together to design and discuss impact of the quality improvement intervention program (Learn more below: Practices Can Help Clinicians Work Together to Complete Recertification Projects.  

User Guide (PDF - 1.4 MB)—Provides navigation and submission instructions for clinicians to receive Board-specific recertification credit: MOC Part IV (ABP and ABFM); PI-CME (PAs); and CE credit for related Webinar material (NPs). The User Guide is current as of January 14, 2016. Note: the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) discontinued its Self-Directed Practice Improvement Module (PIM) program in late January 2016. Before beginning the module, you may wish to check to see if your Board has made any changes to its requirements.

Interactive PDF (PDF - 6.48 MB)—To be stored on clinician's own computer system to select appropriate certification Board(s) and complete data entry.  Includes hyperlinked resources about health risk assessment, quality improvement cycles, evaluation metrics and methods, and practice approach to quality improvement.

• This interactive PDF must be downloaded to your computer and opened in Adobe Acrobat Reader to function properly. To do that, right click (Windows) or hold Control and click (Mac) on the link to the PDF, then choose the option that says "Save this target as" (Windows) or "Download linked file as" (Mac). Choose a location on your computer to save the file, then open the file from that location. To ensure the PDF opens with Acrobat Reader, right click the file and select "Reader" from the "Open with" choices.
• To use a screen reader application with this module, please change your Acrobat reading preferences under the Screen Reader Options to "Only read the currently visible pages." Then close and reopen the PDF; you do not have to download it again. Instructions on how to change the setting are in Accessing PDF Documents with Assistive Technology. If you have difficulty after changing your assistive technology settings or need help making the changes, contact our technical assistance number at 301-427-1600. Please specify the module you are trying to use and the nature of your concern.
• AANP-CE credit for nurse practitioners who complete the AHRQ-generated webinar, Implementing Health Assessments in Primary Care: A How-to Guide.

AHRQ presented two Webinars to enable clinicians to confer with one another as they complete the Health Assessment Quality Improvement Project. These Webinars were designed to complement each other. Part one of the Webinar series was held on Thursday, April 28, and part two was held on Thursday, May 26. Both were archived and available to view after the live sessions.

April 28, 2016, "Part 1: Prepared Clinicians Confer on Strategies to Complete Health Assessments MOC IV and CME QI (for PAs)"

AHRQ’s easy-to-complete recertification project, "Health Assessments: A Primary Care Practice Improvement Activity," fosters clinicians’ capacity to document health assessments—such as the wellness assessment—in patients’ medical records  (paper or electronic). In an effort to assist clinicians (Physicians for MOC Part IV credit and CME QI for PAs) transition from individual quality improvement recertification exercises into sustainable quality improvement enterprise, AHRQ and CDN hoted a two-part virtual classroom for this project. This free clinician-led, Web-based meeting (in live and subsequently recorded format), offered diversified clinicians an opportunity to discuss THEIR strategies and findings.

Before the Webinar, clinicians should have conducted initial steps (about 60-90 minutes):

• Download Health Assessments Users’ Guide and interactive PDF module.
• Enter personal information to your system.
• Complete pre- and post-assessment of health assessment knowledge.
• Review Baseline Performance Data Collection, Section 4, pages 1-14 of the interactive module.  The discussion on April 28^th focused on the clinicians discussing their strategies for the following steps:
  • Target population.
  • Selection of  three health assessment topics (and performance indicators).
  • Assessment of practice priorities.
  • Review patient sampling criteria.
  • Discuss your use of data collection forms, paper or electronic.

Select for the recording of the webinar.

May 26, 2016, "Part 2: Clinicians Confer on Experience Implementing Health Assessments MOC IV and PI-CME (for PAs)"

Clinicians and practice managers, may review the quality improvement module, "Health Assessments: A Primary Care Practice Improvement Activity," for an hour-long recording of an interactive discussion about this new and no-cost AHRQ resource. Structured to meet Maintenance of Certification practice improvement requirements for a range of clinicians,¹ the module guides users through a health assessment performance improvement activity and enables users to select their own particular areas of interest from 22 important health assessments topics. This web-based meeting² offered clinicians an overview of this new module, developed for AHRQ by Westat and the University of Colorado, and included an opportunity for participants to discuss their own experiences and plans for sustaining improvement. Select for the recording of the webinar.

Note: We asked that, prior to the Webinar, participants open and initiate the quality improvement activity contained in the module. This enabled attendees to learn from each other as we explored the module activity together.

^1. Including physician assistants, family physicians, pediatricians, internists, and other physicians; nurse practitioners can obtain CE for watching an embedded video.
^2. This webinar was live on May 26, 2016, and was recorded for subsequent viewing.

Practices Can Help Clinicians Work Together to Complete Recertification Projects (PDF - 2.6 MB)—Diverse clinician groups—physicians, physician assistants, and nurse practitioners—can work together in quality/practice improvement at the practice level to realize greater satisfaction and sustained impact of quality improvement pursuits. This document highlights potential synergy between organizations' current infrastructure and otherwise disparate clinicians' pursuit of recertification requirements.