NJAFP Receives ACCME Accreditation with Commendation as a Provider of Continuing Medical Education
Trenton, NJ – Raymond J. Saputelli, Executive Vice President of the New Jersey Academy of Family Physicians (NJAFP), is pleased to announce that NJAFP has received its accreditation with commendation as a provider of continuing medical education by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME). ACCME accreditation with commendation, or Level 3 as it is called, means that NJAFP has received a six-year accreditation (the maximum possible) and is among the top 25 percent of providers of continuing medical education in the United States, which places them in the top tier of all CME providers including some of the nation’s most prestigious medical schools. ACCME-accredited providers certify educational activities for category 1 credit of the American Medical Association’s Physician’s Recognition Award (“AMA PRA”). The AMA PRA is utilized by state licensing boards and boards of medical specialties to re-license physicians and re-certify them in their areas of specialty.
According to national continuing medical education advisor, Steve Passin, President of Steve Passin & Associates, “NJAFP’s inclusion into the vaulted ranks of Level 3-accredited organizations in the United States places them among those medical educators in the country that have demonstrated the highest levels of educational acumen based on quality and patient safety parameters consistent with identified needs of the physician.”
ACCME accreditation seeks to assure both physicians and the public that continuing medical education activities sponsored by NJAFP meet the high standards of the Criteria for Accreditation and the Standards for Commercial Support of the ACCME. The ACCME rigorously evaluates the overall continuing medical education programs of institutions according to standards adopted by all seven sponsoring organizations of the ACCME: the American Board of Medical Specialties, the American Hospital Association, the American Medical Association, the Association for Hospital Medical Education, the Association of American Medical Colleges, the Council of Medical Specialty Societies and the Federation of State Medical Boards. NJAFP is pleased to be part of a group of organizations in the United States, including major medical schools, national medical associations, hospitals and other medical education organizations that have been awarded this special accreditation status.
In announcing this achievement to the NJAFP leadership and staff, Saputelli said, “This acknowledgement of NJAFP’s performance-in-practice further empowers our core educational mission to “provide family physicians and other health care professionals with high-quality learning opportunities that improve their competence, support their performance and preparedness for certification / licensure, and increase the vitality and efficiency of their practice by providing educational programming that is high-quality, evidence-based, up-to-date, and learner-driven to enrich their continued professional education and development to improve patient outcomes.”
The NJAFP was cited for achievement in two important criteria that were determinants of their commendation status: (1) CME that served to generate improvements in the professional practice of its physicians, and (2) CME that was fundamentally planned to improve quality of care and patient safety.
The New Jersey Academy of Family Physicians’ exemplary education ultimately serves the patients of the primary care physicians who avail themselves of the educational curriculum offered by the NJAFP. For more information about NJAFP’s award-winning CME program, please contact Theresa Barrett, PhD, CMP, CAE at (609) 394-1711.