Vivacity Consulting

Bringing energy and experience to your CME activity

Reporting Learners to PARS? How to Get Started with a Pilot Project

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Getting Started with Learner Credit Reporting in PARS: A Step-by-Step Guide for CME Providers

As a medical education consultant, I’ve worked with many CME providers who are eager to streamline their processes, support lifelong learning, and reduce administrative burden for their teams and physician learners. One of the most impactful ways to do this is by reporting individual learner credit data through the ACCME’s Program and Activity Reporting System (PARS).

Starting with a small pilot can help your organization ease into this process while learning the system. And now, with recent requirements from the American Board of Surgery (ABS), the need for learner credit reporting has become even more urgent.

Why Now? The ABS Requirement

As of 2023, the American Board of Surgery will no longer allow surgeons to self-report their CME credits. Instead, CME providers must submit credit on behalf of surgeon learners via PARS. This change makes it essential for providers who educate surgeons to begin learner credit reporting as soon as possible. If your organization provides CME to surgeons, start your pilot with this group. It will help your learners stay in compliance with Continuous Certification requirements and prevent delays in their certification and license renewal processes.

Why Start with a Pilot?

Launching a pilot allows your organization to:

  • Test the Process: Learn how to navigate PARS in a low-risk setting
  • Identify Barriers Early: Work through technical or administrative challenges
  • Demonstrate Value: Show stakeholders how this supports learners and accreditation alignment

Step-by-Step Guide to Launching Your Pilot

  1. Select a Pilot Activity
    • Choose a recent or upcoming CME activity with a manageable number of learners.
    • Make sure the activity is already entered into PARS.
  2. Gather Learner Information For each learner, you’ll need:
    • First and last name
    • State of licensure
    • License number or National Provider Identifier (NPI)
    • Date of birth (month and day only)
    • Date of activity completion
    • Confirmation of consent to report their data (if needed)
  3. Choose a Reporting Method
    • Manual Entry (best for small groups)
    • Excel Batch Upload
    • Automated Web Services Integration with your LMS
  4. Submit Data in PARS
    • Log in to PARS, locate the activity, and upload learner data.
    • Review and validate the submission.
  5. Evaluate and Refine
    • Solicit feedback from learners and staff.
    • Note technical hiccups or workflow issues and adjust accordingly.

Benefits of Learner Credit Reporting

  • For Surgeons: Required for ABS Continuous Certification
  • For Providers: Positions your CME program as responsive and learner-centered
  • For Regulators: Improves data accuracy and simplifies license renewal processes

Helpful Resources

Take the First Step

Getting started with a pilot is the most efficient way to build comfort and capability with learner credit reporting. And for providers serving surgeons, it’s no longer optional.

Start small and start soon!

Need help planning your pilot or selecting tools to streamline the process? Contact me if you would like assistance.

Facilitate teamwork in CE and CME departments

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Your Medical Education Program Can Thrive With Teamwork

Evidence had demonstrated that organizations can dramatically improve the ability to meet its educational mission by actively working to improve the teamwork between physicians, healthcare professionals, quality department leadership, staff and other members of your CE CME department. However, this challenge can feel monumental when you are facing piles of paperwork.

The famous comedian, Milton Berle, once said, “a committee is a group that keeps minutes and loses hours.” With Vivacity Consulting’s facilitation, your committee or planning group will stay focused and on target.

Through the use of effective communication skills, action items, and project milestones, your group can tackle large tasks like ACCME or Joint Accreditation in easy-to-accomplish sections. These components support or even elevate the group’s accountability ethos, which is key to meeting its goals.

We have experience using different approaches with committees comprised of members in various parts of the world. Working with the International Pediatric Endosurgery Group (IPEG), Ms. Schwarz often coordinated email-based committee meetings with great effectiveness. In other cases where planner groups were small, regular telephone conference calls were helpful to keep the group on-task. Working with the American Head & Neck Society (AHNS) to create a conference comprised of two different target audiences (clinical and research oriented physicians), Ms. Schwarz met in person with the organizers and then multiple times via conference call to ensure the educational content was appropriate and met the stated objectives.

To read more about Vivacity Consulting’s clients, please click here.

Collaborate for success

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Improve Your Medical Education Program: Collaborate with Vivacity Consulting

Collaborate with the right partners to find success for your ACCME or Joint Accreditation initial, re-accreditation, progress report, interim report, or CME-program improvements. Vivacity Consulting can be your partner!

Providing CE and CME credits to clinicians is essential for your organization and Vivacity Consulting will help you obtain or maintain your ability to do so. We provide expert guidance that can lead to Accreditation with Commendation.

If your organization is seeking commendation, Vivacity Consulting provides an organizational review of your the current CE program. Vivacity Consulting will work with you to develop a plan to ensure compliance throughout the whole organization.

In the instance of the The Southeast Permanente Medical Group, Vivacity Consulting designed staff training via web meeting, sample templates for activity planning, consultative services during CME Committee meetings, and a team work plan for the preparation of the reaccreditation application. The physician leadership and staff embraced this process, and it led to a decision for Commendation by the state accreditation organization.

To learn more about Vivacity Consulting, click here.

Guide the CME Program

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Vivacity Consulting: Your Medical Education Guide

Medical education is no longer about talking heads in a conference room. It must produce measurable results and it is best when it impacts the practice of the attendee in a long-term fashion.

Vivacity Consulting’s experts can review your current program, audit your previous activities and make recommendations for enhancing or expanding your CE or CME program. Your programs will be more attractive to your attendees if they provide documented improvement in health care, address ways to overcome barriers, or help to meet certification needs, such as MOC (maintenance of certification).

Vivacity Consulting has partnered with numerous organizations in the design and implementation of impactful activities. Working with the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons )(SAGES), Ms. Schwarz has facilitated two longitudinal Performance Improvement educational activities designed to increase the adoption of complicated hernia surgery procedures into practice.

Ms. Schwarz has also led 40+ successful initial and reaccreditation applications for the ACCME and Joint Accreditation.

Our Goal: Compliance, Educational Excellence

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Compliance, Educational Excellence

Reduce your workload, simplify the CE or CME paperwork, improve the quality and impact of the education offered, and increase the appeal of your organization’s activities.

Vivacity Consulting understands the complexities of CE and CME compliance and will help you ensure your program complies with today’s standards. Vivacity Consulting is familiar with the pressures facing physician, nurse and pharmacist leaders, as well as the education staff members who are also responsible for the CE program. Our guidance enables you to efficiently meet your mission on time and on budget.

With over 25 years of experience working with physicians, clinicians and education staff members, we know that practical direction matters when time and resources are limited and high standards must be met. We do not provide boiler-plate services because every organization is different, thus we will customize our proposal to completely meet your needs within the constraints of your particular situation.