Relationships between the ACGME resident and faculty surveys and program pass rates on the ABIM internal medicine certification examination

Purpose The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) has surveyed residents since 2003, and faculty since 2012. Surveys are designed to assess program functioning and specify areas for improvement. The purpose of this study was to assess the association of the ACGME’s resident and faculty surveys with residency-program-specific performance on the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) certification exam. Method Data were available from residents and faculty in 375 U.S. ACGME-accredited internal medicine programs from the 2012–2013, 2013–2014, and 2014–2015 academic years. Analysis of variance and correlations were used to examine the relationship between noncompliance with ACGME program requirements as assessed by the resident and faculty surveys, and ABIM program pass rates. Results Noncompliance reported on the resident and faculty surveys was highest for programs not meeting the ACGME program requirement of an 80% pass rate on the ABIM certification examination. This relationship was significant for overall noncompliance, both within the resident (P < .001) and faculty (P < .05) surveys, for many areas within the two surveys (correlations ranged between −.07 and −.25, and P values ranged between .20 and < .001), and for the highest levels of noncompliance across areas of the resident (P < .001) and faculty (P < .04) surveys. Conclusions ACGME resident and faculty surveys were significantly associated with ABIM program pass rates, supporting the importance of these surveys within the ACGME’s Next Accreditation System.