Association between the American Board of Emergency Medicine Oral Certifying Examination and Future State Medical Board Disciplinary Actions.
Publication/Presentation Date
2-1-2024
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: The American Board of Emergency Medicine (ABEM) requires a written examination (the Qualifying Examination) followed by the Oral Certifying Examination (OCE) to obtain ABEM certification. Maintaining ABEM certification is associated with fewer state medical board (SMB) disciplinary actions. We sought to determine the association between poor initial performance on the OCE and subsequent severe SMB disciplinary action.
METHODS: We included physicians who completed US categorical emergency medicine residencies in 2016 and earlier. We classified OCE performance as good (passed on first attempt) and poor (never passed or required > 1 attempt to pass). We obtained data on physician SMB disciplinary actions from the National Practitioner Data Bank that were limited to actions that denied licensure or altered the status of a medical license (eg, suspension). We determined the association between poor OCE performance and subsequent severe SMB disciplinary action.
RESULTS: Of 34,871, 93.5% passed the OCE on the first attempt, 6.1% required multiple attempts, and 0.3% never passed. Of the physicians (93.5%) with good OCE performance, 1.0% received a severe SMB action. Among physicians with poor OCE performance, 2.3% received a severe action; and of those who never passed, 1.7% received a severe action (Table 1). Poor OCE performance was associated with an increased odds of severe SMB disciplinary action (OR 2.21, 95% CI: 1.57-3.12).
CONCLUSION: Physicians with poor OCE performance exhibited higher odds of experiencing a subsequent severe SMB disciplinary action. The OCE may have utility as a predictor of future professionalism or clinical performance.
Volume
5
Issue
1
First Page
13119
Last Page
13119
ISSN
2688-1152
Published In/Presented At
Reisdorff, E. J., Johnston, M. M., Kraus, C. K., Keim, S. M., & Santen, S. A. (2024). Association between the American Board of Emergency Medicine Oral Certifying Examination and Future State Medical Board Disciplinary Actions. Journal of the American College of Emergency Physicians open, 5(1), e13119. https://doi.org/10.1002/emp2.13119
Disciplines
Medicine and Health Sciences
PubMedID
38322376
Department(s)
Department of Emergency Medicine
Document Type
Article