The Department of Defense Closing Down CME Office

As we recently noted, in addition to a recent decrease in the number of state-accredited continuing medical education (CME) providers, academic medical centers and hospitals are also beginning to decrease the amount of CME they are able to offer.

For example, Dr. Marschall Runge, Executive Dean at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, noted that the School of Medicine “has decided to close the Continuing Medical Education (CME) Office on campus, as a result of state budget reductions.”  The letter explained that the School is “reorganizing the way CME credit is offered for SOM faculty members.”  Additionally, Runge noted that the School “will also reassign management of large CME events.”

Academic medical centers are not alone.  “The sluggish economy, major state and federal budget cuts, and looming provider payment cuts have driven more hospitals to consider reducing staff as a way to stabilize their bottom lines,” which will likely include cuts to CME budgets and resources.

Consequently, the federal government is also announcing difficulties providing continuing education.  For example, the Department of Defense (DoD) recently announced that it is “currently experiencing major fiscal challenges.”

To address these challenges, the SECDEF directed all DoD organizations, including TRICARE Management Activity (TMA) and USU, to seek organizational efficiencies.  As a result, DOD announced that the Continuing Education Office (CHE) will be disestablished in FY12.

CHE business operations will continue as usual for the remainder of this academic year. New activity applications are not accepted after 30 June 11.  During the remainder of FY11 and during FY12, all business activities will be phased out with final closure expected July 2012 with the surrender of all 6 accreditations.

If programs are scheduled or individuals are working with CHE on a program scheduled for early FY12, CHE said it would continue to work with them.  If CME providers are planning an activity but have not initiated work with CHE, they asked to contact their office for assistance with finding other continuing education providers.

As more CME providers, including large ones, such as the federal government, begin to close their CME offices, providing high quality CME will fall on the shoulders of other CME providers, which will require more resources and staff.  Those who continue to assert that CME should not be funded my commercial support do not acknowledge the extreme funding difficulties that CME providers are facing.  CME providers will need to begin accounting for the shortfall of government agencies, academic medical centers, and hospitals.  Now is the time to stop focusing on who helps support providing CME, and instead, focus on making sure that this country’s physicians have high quality education.