ACHA Application for CE Credit
Tips and Pitfalls

The ACHA Handbook and Application for Continuing Education Credit can be found here: (see sidebar at right).Please check the site periodically, like prior to starting work on each part, to make sure you are using the most recent version.

The most common pitfallsare

1)not allowing enough lead time to select, solicit, and confirm programs and speakers.

2)Not reading through all parts of the Handbook in advance

Part I

TIPS:

  • Make sure the degrees listed next to the names on your Program Planning Committee (PPC) form match the degrees listed next to the names on each committee members' disclosure form.
  • Make sure everyone involved in the planning is included on the PPC roster, including logistics and marketing planners, administrative support.
  • The target audience and meeting goals should be included in preliminary publicity and/or conference website.

PITFALLS:

  • The minutes of your PPC meetings do not show presence/participation of all required members of your PPC.
  • The documentation that shows the participation and feedback of the ACHA CE Committee representatives is missing or incomplete.
  • Your preliminary publicity has prematurely published accreditation statements indicating that CE has been applied for. This can only be done after Part II has been submitted to ACHA.

Part II

TIPS

  • Review all session objectives for proper format: 1) they are stated with verbs from the approved list, and 2) they contain only one verb
  • Be sure that the "content" for the objectives does not simply restates the objective. Correct "content" should briefly list the specific information that will be discussed to meet the objective.

PITFALLS

  • ACHA is not informed of changes to speakers or program title, objectives, abstract that occur after original submission.

Part III

TIPS

  • The sample CE certificates should state the overall title of your event, not the title of an individual session. (You are only issuing one certificate per participant with total credit earned for the entire meeting, not one certificate per session.)

PITFALLS

  • In-kind donations of products or services from a sponsor is often left off the sponsor listing form. It must be listed, including an estimated value of the donation.

Part IV

TIPS

  • Be sure that your printed program details (time schedule, objectives, speakers, credits)match exactly the program submission forms you submitted in Part II and the credit awards issued by ACHA.
  • Please allow enough time for initial review by ACHA, time for you to make corrections, and a second review by ACHA before you are scheduled to go to the printer.

PITFALLS

  • The Final Program is missing one or more of the required elements as indicated in the application handbook.

Part V

TIPS

  • Make sure that during the registration process you collect the information you will need to submit in Part V. This includes name, institution, degree, address, email, CHES ID number. You will also need to know how many licensed/certified attendees from each discipline were present – not just a total of those who request credit. For example, how many physicians (MD or DO) were in attendance?

PITFALLS

  • The total number of attendees indicated on the ACHA Meeting Report form does not match your attendee roster count.
  • A sample of an actual attendee certificate for each discipline for which you awarded credit has not be submitted. Most commonly, the CME for non-physicians sample is missing.