The Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) announced Monday that it has reaccredited ASHP as a provider of continuing medical education (CME) for physicians. As an accredited provider of both continuing pharmacy education and CME, ASHP offers programming on medication therapy, patient safety, and other topics critical to interprofessional collaboration.
The new reaccreditation will remain in effect for four years, which is the standard term awarded to providers for demonstrating compliance in the core accreditation criteria. More than 160,460 learners have participated in ASHP’s 277 ACCME programs since 2018, when the most recent accreditation cycle began.
Being an ACCME-accredited provider helps position ASHP to act as a strategic partner in a wide array of healthcare improvement initiatives and allows the organization to provide government-required training, such as the recently launched Medications for Opioid Use Disorder Training Program, which is designed to meet federal regulatory requirements.
“As a professional association representing pharmacists across the full spectrum of patient care, hospital and health-system pharmacists recognize the importance of interprofessional teamwork to help ensure optimal health outcomes for the patients they serve," said ASHP CEO Paul W. Abramowitz. “ASHP remains strongly committed to offering the highest caliber education to pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, physicians, and nurses. We are thankful to ACCME for our reaccreditation, and for their ongoing partnership.”
Starting in the 1990s, ASHP expanded the scope of its educational program to develop educational activities for physicians, nurses, and other health professionals. This expansion was in keeping with the evolving interprofessional focus of the healthcare team — and a logical progression of ASHP’s educational mission.
The ACCME system uses a rigorous process for evaluating institutions’ CME programs according to standards that reflect educators’ values and aim to accelerate learning, inspire change, and champion improvement in healthcare.
ASHP’s CME program focuses on medication therapy, patient safety, technology, evidence-based practice, teams and teamwork, interprofessional communication, and other relevant topics based on identified practice gaps and their underlying educational needs.
