Eligibility
TopEligibility
Entry requirements for ABIM Focused Practice in Hospital Medicine Maintenance of Certification (MOC) program include:
- Previous ABIM certification in Internal Medicine.
- Valid, unrestricted medical license and confirmation of good standing in the local practice community.
- Current Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) certification.
- At least three years of unsupervised Hospital Medicine practice experience at the time of entry (Formal fellowship training in a hospital medicine fellowship program can be counted toward the three year practice experience criteria).
- Attestation by the diplomate and a Senior Hospital Officer (SHO)* that the diplomate meets patient encounter thresholds. The patient encounter thresholds must be fulfilled in the three years immediately prior to application for entry into the program.
* Acceptable Senior Hospital Officer titles include:
- Division Director
- Section Chief
- Chief Medical Officer
- Chair of Medicine
- Service Line Chief
- Medical Director
- Chief Executive Officer
- President
- Chair of the Board of Directors
Attestations
Entry into the FPHM MOC program requires two attestations:
- A self-attestation completed by the diplomate
- An eligibility attestation completed by an SHO
Note: These documents must be submitted and approved prior to entry in the program.
The self-attestation is a Web-based process that can be accessed via your ABIM Physician Login home page. Once you attest and provide contact information for the SHO, they will be notified by ABIM to complete the attestation. You will be able to track your status in the process.
TopPatient Encounter Thresholds
There are two pathways - Direct Patient Care or Clinical/Systems:
- Direct Patient Care (i.e., full-time hospital practice): minimum of 1,000 hospital patient encounters (limited to one encounter per patient-day) per year for three years, or 3,000 over three years.
- Clinical/Systems (i.e., full-time hospital medicine professional activity with part-time hospital practice): minimum of 250 hospital patient encounters (limited to one encounter per patient day) per year for three years, or 750 over three years; these encounters must comprise at least 75% of total clinical activity, and at least 50% of the remaining non-clinical professional time must be directed toward improving the care of hospitalized patients.
- The patient encounter volume thresholds must be fulfilled in the three years immediately prior to application for entry into the program.
- ABIM reserves the right to conduct a random audit of all applications to ensure the program's patient encounter requirements are being adequately fulfilled.
- If you do not currently meet these patient encounter thresholds, you must accumulate them before you can enter the FPHM program.
Subspecialists
The FPHM MOC program is not intended for subspecialists practicing in a hospital setting.
However, ABIM does recognize that subspecialists may split their practice time between their subspecialty and practicing as a general internal medicine hospitalist. If you are a subspecialist who also practices as a general internal medicine hospitalist:
- You may apply to enter the FPHM program but your eligibility will be determined on a case-by-case basis by ABIM.
- You are not permitted to count subspecialty patient encounters toward the patient encounter volume requirements for entry into the program.