C-BASS contains global competency categories which can be used across surgical specialties. The general summary of surgical skills includes a 5-point Likert Global Rating Scale. Global modules for the system will also include consenting a patient and dictation of an operative note. Secondly, C-BASS includes sample modules for key surgeries performed in each specialty. In these specific competency assessments the procedures are broken into steps which can be evaluated using a binomial (“competent/needs work”) check-off list. Each step includes description of competence to make assessments more uniform. The residents have access to their own evaluation reports and can evaluate faculty anonymously. Faculty can review composites of a resident’s previous evaluations to target their teaching towards an individual resident’s weak areas. The program directors will have access to all evaluations. They can monitor individual resident’s progress in training, the program’s overall trends, and teaching faculty’s compliance in giving feedback. The system allows feedback from system users to establish validity of the evaluations for each procedure (expert consensus). Capabilities of the system include individual and summary evaluation reports, procedure counts, graphs for easy monitoring of trends in surgical performance, and documentation of achieved competencies for graduating residents
Technical Details:
The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) evaluates and accredits medical residency programs in the United States. ACGM requires that residency programs assess residents' core competencies, which include surgical skills in operative specialties. The number of surgical cases in which a resident has participated during his/her training, cannot be assumed to prove competence to perform a certain procedure without direct supervision. This led to the development of the Competency-Based Assessment of Residents' Surgical Skills (C-BASS) tool, a web-based evaluation tool that would allow providing “outcomes-based” rather than “numbers-based” documentation of graduating residents’ operative proficiency. As an evaluation tool, C-BASS allows residency program directors to easily provide objective documentation to ACGME. They can also use it to create records for graduating residents’ appropriateness for board examination and hospital credentialing. It eliminates paperwork and can compile results and trends in real time. C-BASS can also be utilized as an educational tool due to its ability to give structured feedback. Faculty can modify and individualize surgical training to target an individual resident’s strengths and weaknesses and to assess the resident’s progression over time. Residents can review their own progress and their performance compared to other same level residents. C-Bass can be utilized across various surgical specialties, as well as tailored for any surgical procedure.
Looking for Partners:
C-BASS was developed to facilitate residency programs' compliance with ACGME requirements of documenting residents' surgical and some other core competencies. It compiles data for immediate feedback to residents, faculty and program director.
