UofT IM Residency Accreditation Status?

[throwaway12348]

Just became aware of this recently, can anyone clarify how commonly this occurs in programs? Small excerpt from the article below: 

 

As you know, in the first week of May 2021, the department received the Preliminary Accreditation Outcome for our residency training programs. Among these reports, the Royal College’s Accreditation Committee (AC) informed us of their decision to confer the status of “Accredited Program on Notice of Intent to Withdraw Accreditation”. The RCPSC issues such a notice when it finds “major and/or continuing non-compliance with one or more standards, which calls into question the educational environment and/or integrity of the program.”  

https://www.deptmedicine.utoronto.ca/news/departments-response-internal-medicine-residency-accreditation-review-taking-action-address

[indefatigable]

38 minutes ago, throwaway12348 said:

Just became aware of this recently, can anyone clarify how commonly this occurs in programs? Small excerpt from the article below: 

As you know, in the first week of May 2021, the department received the Preliminary Accreditation Outcome for our residency training programs. Among these reports, the Royal College’s Accreditation Committee (AC) informed us of their decision to confer the status of “Accredited Program on Notice of Intent to Withdraw Accreditation”. The RCPSC issues such a notice when it finds “major and/or continuing non-compliance with one or more standards, which calls into question the educational environment and/or integrity of the program.”  

McGill's IM program had the same decision a few years ago and looking through some older posts MUN's IM before that.  It's not unique to IM either - other programs do seem to get flagged too.

It's pretty rare for the programs to actually have their accreditation withdrawn - it mostly seems to serve as a big wake-up call to the programs to address concerns.  

For potential residents, it's something to be aware of, but in theory might mean the program could improve - but could also mean that there are some entrenched issues beneath the surface.

[Haribo7173]

Happens more often than you might think.

[1D7]

Usually at least 1-2 programs each year get slapped with something of this sort. I do think it implies there is a deeper underlying problem, but it seems to happen often enough that programs know how to make a few changes here and there to fix it up.

[bearded frog]

It's not rare, and the chances of the program loosing accreditation is essentially 0, it's just an incentive for the program to actually fix it's deficiencies. All programs get accredited every few years and it's in the residents' interests to complain about deficiencies as much as possible during this time because the programs will actually take it seriously compared to baseline.

[ACHQ]

As a former resident of said program, I’m not surprised at all about these developments. A lot of the concerns are *not* new… hopefully the feedback we have over the years finally will be answered and addressed appropriately. 
 

That being said UofT is a good place to train, great pathology, great teachers, and of course great city. 
 

I think ultimately this will blow over and hopefully some intrinsic changes that benefit resident wellness will finally be implemented. 

[Edict]

Honestly, all it really says is the residents aren't that happy with the program. The program won't actually ever lose accreditation, can you imagine what would happen if it did? IM residents are the backbone of all teaching hospitals. 

Ironically enough, it is often a good sign because these kinds of things serve as a wakeup call to admin and if any heads roll it's usually the program's teaching staff and not the residents. Usually by the time the new residents join, the program has been improved. 

[1D7]

Quote

1. There is an ongoing issue with resident supervision in the clinical environment, and perceived lack of support, particularly of junior learners on subspecialty services and on the Clinical Teaching Units, CTUs, during weekends. This is felt (by the residents) to be impacting patient safety; and,
    
2. Residents are afraid to raise substantial questions or issues with the program, for fear of repercussions, both within their training program and related to future employment in Toronto. This perception arises from observation of the treatment of residents who have spoken out.

 

Does anyone know of the specifics?

None of this seems particularly unique to IM at UofT but perhaps the severity of the issues are worse compared to other programs.

[bearded frog]

2 hours ago, 1D7 said:

Does anyone know of the specifics?

https://www.deptmedicine.utoronto.ca/news/departments-response-internal-medicine-residency-accreditation-review-taking-action-address

[shikimate]

1. There is an ongoing issue with resident supervision in the clinical environment, and perceived lack of support, particularly of junior learners on subspecialty services and on the Clinical Teaching Units, CTUs, during weekends. This is felt (by the residents) to be impacting patient safety; and,
    
2. Residents are afraid to raise substantial questions or issues with the program, for fear of repercussions, both within their training program and related to future employment in Toronto. This perception arises from observation of the treatment of residents who have spoken out."

 

Sounds like pretty serious allegations and cultural/systemic issues, but I am sure this is not unique to IM or Toronto. At least IM is a big specialty and you can go work elsewhere if the people in GTA aren't your friends, but I imagine for smaller specialties that takes in 2-3 residents a year, it would make job searching really hard.  IM residents actually spoke up here, but I doubt residents in other smaller programs are willing to speak up though, it's just too easy to identify the trouble makers within the program.