The annual program review of effectiveness: A process improvement approach

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: All residencies and fellowships are required by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) and local institutional policy to conduct an annual program review of educational effectiveness. However, a number of family medicine residencies were cited for having an inadequate annual review or for failing to document the review in 2008. The ACGME and university offices of graduate medical education provide program directors some guidance on conducting and documenting annual program reviews, but few articles describe a detailed process for such a review. In this article, the authors describe the systematic process their program uses to conduct and document an annual program review and argue that the annual program review is an excellent way of modeling quality improvement to residents and showing residents and faculty that their input helps improve the residency and the residents' educational experiences. The article also describes metrics included in the process and tells how resident and faculty participation is integrated in the review. Specific outcomes of the process are also described. The authors believe that other residency programs and fellowship programs can adapt this process to conduct annual reviews that improve educational and clinical outcomes.