DOCUMENTING ATTENDANCE AT A CME ACTIVITY

As an accredited provider The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center must have mechanisms in place to record and verify participation for six years from the date of participation in the CME activity.  The Center for Continuing Medical Education (CCME) has the responsibility of determining the process to fulfill this requirement; however, this responsibility is often delegated to activity coordinators. Coordinators are limited in the choice of processes that may be used in order to achieve uniformity in attendance documentation.   The processes that CCME uses to fulfill this requirement are sign in sheets, signed attendance attestations forms, posttests, and/or signed evaluation forms.  Now, with greater online participation in CME activities, these processes may be cumbersome. Fortunately, popular virtual platforms for online CME include reporting options that all coordinators to pull login and logout information on participants. Such reporting will be acceptable for participation documentation, but CCME recommends a second means of documenting participation that requires the action of the participant directly. The best options for for a second method of documenting attendance are posttests or attestations forms. Virtual platforms, such as Microsoft Teams or Zoom, include polling options which can be substituted for posttests. Polling reports can be downloaded that support participant engagement.

In the in-person activity world, sign in sheets should only be used as the sole documentation of attendance when the CME activity is two hours or less.  For longer CME activities sign in sheets should only be used with a second means of documentation – attendance forms or posttests are suggested.   Attendance forms may more accurately support attendance because these require the participant to indicate the sessions that were attended.  Properly designed posttests take the place of sign in sheets or attendance forms since a successful score on the test indicates that objectives for the participant were achieved.  Signed evaluation sheets are less reliable as a documentation of attendance and should not be used alone.

Whichever method of attendance documentation is used, the activity coordinator remains an essential part of the documentation process.  Short of “clocking” participants in and out of the CME activity, coordinators or other staff should purposefully oversee the documentation process.  Setting out unattended sign in sheets is unacceptable.  Screening attendance forms as participants leave the CME activity is a necessary responsibility.  While the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) requires attendance documentation, CCME procedures go beyond attendance documents to include prudent observation as part of that process.

Information should be included in syllabus material or in introductory remarks about attendance documentation and how this documentation relates to awarding CME credits.

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