Collaboration Between ACGME and AOA Programs to Enhance Success in the Single Accreditation System: A Process Paper

Beginning in 2020, all residency programs will be accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). Programs accredited by the American Osteopathic Association (AOA) that do not achieve ACGME pre-accreditation status by 2020 will be forced to close, resulting in loss of graduate medical education slots and affecting the physician workforce locally and nationally. Current ACGME programs are in a position to help consult, support, and learn from local AOA-only programs as they work toward meeting ACGME accreditation requirements, but to date there have been only limited collaborations. A regional network of ACGME- and dually accredited family medicine residency programs (“the Network”) and family medicine programs solely accredited by the AOA recognized the imperative to support the AOA-only programs with their accreditation transitions to preserve their primary care residency positions. This article describes the inputs, activities, outputs, and outcomes of these collaborative efforts to establish communications and strategies using a logic model program “road map” format. Initial efforts included a collaborative conference and ongoing consultations and workshops. This model can be replicated for program collaborations in other locations.