PREPARING FOR THE 2019 ACGME COMMON PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS—WHAT’S NEW?

The Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) periodically conducts a thorough review of the Common Program Requirements to ensure they reflect the latest best evidence regarding resident education as it relates to patient safety, super- vision, and competency development. To this end, the ACGME strives to meet the dual responsibility of educating and training the next generation of physicians while ensuring the safety of patients and residents. As its name implies, the Common Program Requirements are applicable to all residency programs, regardless of specialty. After a 45-day public comment period, the ACGME approved the next major revision, to be effective July 1, 2019.¹

The latest Common Program Requirements stress 4 areas, (1) patient safety and quality improvement, (2) physician well-being, (3) team-based care, and (4) clinical and educational work hours. Table 1 highlights only a few of those changed areas important for family medicine program directors.

The Review Committee for Family Medicine (RC-FM) may provide additional specification to these Common Program Requirements, but only when permitted. By the publication of this article, the RC-FM should have published our specialty-specific changes for a 45-day public review and comment. There are some new Common Program Requirements listed that are less restrictive than our current RC-FM requirements, as listed in Table 2. It is essential that program directors review the final requirements and prepare for their implementation by July 1, 2019.

These new Common Program Requirements better define some important areas in resident education but also add additional burden to the program director and faculty in terms of teaching and administrative burden. We encourage program directors to discuss these changes on the AFMRD discussion forum so that we all may learn from each other how we can best implement these new changes.

• © 2019 Annals of Family Medicine, Inc.