The American Board of Pediatrics Response to the Pediatric Hospital Medicine Petition
© 2019 Society of Hospital Medicine
CLARIFICATION AND SIMPLIFICATION OF ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA
The ABP recognizes that the use of %FTE, work hours, and leave exceptions led to unintended confusion among applicants. The intent had been to acknowledge the many valid reasons for interruption of practice, including parental leave. This response to the petition clarifies that the critical question from the public’s perspective is whether the candidate has accumulated enough hours of sustained practice to be considered competent in the field of PHM and specifically caring for hospitalized children (as defined above). Upon review, the ABP believes the workhours criteria (items 3 and 4) accomplish this critical goal and make the %FTE and practice interruption criteria largely redundant. Table 3 reflects the clarified and streamlined requirements. Re-examination of all the denied applications showed that using the criteria in Table 3 did not have a significant impact on the outcomes. One additional applicant’s appeal was granted, and this applicant has been so notified.
APPEALS PROCESS
The right to appeal and the Appellate Review Procedure are included in a denial letter. The applicant is given a deadline of 14 days to notify the ABP of the intent to appeal. There is no appellate fee. Within one to three days, the ABP acknowledges receipt of the applicant’s intent to appeal and sends the applicant a date by which additional supporting information should be provided.
The appeal material is shared with the subboard credentials committee and each member individually reviews and votes on the appeal. The application is approved if a majority votes in favor of the applicant’s appeal. If there is no majority, the credentials committee discusses the case to reach a decision. The results of the appeal are final according to the ABP Appellate Review Procedure. We remain in the appeal process for several PHM applicants as of the date of this response.
Thank you for the opportunity to respond to the petition. The ABP is committed to dialogue, transparency, and continuously improving its processes.
Acknowledgment
The authors thank the ABP board of directors and the ABP PHM subboard for their review and thoughtful contributions.
Disclosures
Dr. Nichols reports other from The American Board of Pediatrics, during the conduct of the work. Dr. Woods has nothing to disclose.
