Each of the 9 Internal Medicine fellowship programs underwent rigorous site visits by the Residency Review Committee (RRC) in 2010 to evaluate the level of fellow education and program supervision against established RRC standards. The result—the maximum accreditation cycle possible for all Internal Medicine fellowship programs. "This is an outstanding achievement!" declared Thomas Higgins, Chair of the Department of Medicine.

Teamwork Essential to Success

All involved stressed that this accomplishment could have not been achieved without a team effort, lead by Gail Wall, Fellowship Administrator, that included the fellowship Program Directors and Education Coordinators (see below), Dr. Kevin Hinchey, Core Internal Medicine Program Director, Linda Baillargeon, Core Internal Medicine Program Manager, and Martha Anderson, Graduate Medical Education Program Analyst.

Ms. Wall explained that she and the fellowship education coordinators held weekly working sessions to prepare for the site reviews. This process led to the establishment of policies, curriculum, and common program requirement models that culminated in the presentation of consistent Program Information Forms (PIF) to the RRC site visitor.

Significant Achievement for Newest Fellowship

Notification for 3 of the fellowships, Cardiovascular Disease, Critical Care Medicine and Endocrinology, was received from the ACGME in September 2010. "This was a tremendous accomplishment for our newly established Critical Care Medicine fellowship program. It began in July 2008, so this was their first review cycle," says Kevin Hinchey, Core Internal Medicine Program Director.

In February 2011, the 6 remaining fellowships, Geriatric Medicine, Hematology/Oncology, Infectious Disease, Nephrology, Electrophysiology, and Interventional Cardiology, received notification that they had also received the maximum accreditation.

This article was published in the March 2011 Academics@Baystate newsletter.