Physicians, Hospitals Benefit from Reentry Programs

Imagine you’re a practitioner who wants to return to practice after an extended leave and need to brush up your clinical skills. Or you’re a hospital who wants to welcome that practitioner back, but you need evidence of current competency. In both cases, a physician reentry program can be the ideal partner.

Physician reentry programs are structured educational plans that may offer a mix of clinical and cognitive refreshers for individuals returning from maternity leave, sabbaticals, or other extended absences.

Who’s running these programs? One player in the field is The Center for Personalized Education for Physicians (CPEP) based in Denver. Although CPEP’s program is similar to other programs, each reentry program is unique, and hospitals need to research each program individually to determine which one best suits the needs of its medical staff members.

CPEP uses two distinct methods to help practitioners with their reentry needs. “First of all, we do an initial needs analysis or an assessment of what the physician’s educational needs are within the context of what their proposed practice setting will be,” says Elizabeth Grace, MD, medical director at CPEP. Then, CPEP determines whether the practitioner is ready to return to practice unassisted, or whether he or she needs to participate in an educational program.

The educational program is the second part of CPEP’s technique to help practitioners with their reentry needs.

“The educational portion of the reentry plan is designed so the physician can accomplish that education in their home location [while being] guided, directed, and monitored by CPEP,” says Grace.