Surgery and Medicine Residents’ Perspectives of Morbidity and Mortality Conference: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Improve ACGME Core Competency Compliance

Morbidity and mortality meetings: gold, silver or bronze?

“…Seven studies reported factors that inhibit the effective conduct of M&M meetings, and are summarized in Table . From the included studies, five main barriers were identified: Poor attendance : the absence of key staff makes it hard to understand and discuss the series of events that precede an incident, and is associated with fewer decisions and actions planned as a result of discussions …”

“… Negative perceptions of M&M meetings : poor perceptions of the M&M process often lead to poor engagement and attendance. Documented reasons for poor views of M&M meetings are that they are cumbersome, would not eventuate in change, are not organized satisfactorily, lack structured case analysis and lack involvement from other hospital staff members . Four studies found some participants (5–14%) believed their M&M meeting environment was not entirely blame‐free, despite the efforts made for them to be …”

Impact of an Event Reporting System on Resident Complication Reporting in Plastic Surgery Training: Addressing an ACGME and Plastic Surgery Milestone Project Core Competency

“…Prior studies in the surgical literature have documented that conventional reporting methods for M&M conferences led residents to substantially underreport inpatient and postdischarge complications. 13–15 Furthermore, a prior survey of surgical residents revealed less than 30% frequently reported complications on their service to M&M conference and over 40% had never reported a complication to M&M conference. 15 This represents a potentially concerning gap in attaining competency in the practice-based learning and improvement ACGME core competency.…”

“…13–15 Furthermore, a prior survey of surgical residents revealed less than 30% frequently reported complications on their service to M&M conference and over 40% had never reported a complication to M&M conference. 15 This represents a potentially concerning gap in attaining competency in the practice-based learning and improvement ACGME core competency. 8 Additionally, the Plastic Surgery Milestone Project has also identified complication reporting and analysis as a key component of patient safety milestones in the systems-based practice competency.…”

“…11,12 Unfortunately, current methods for capturing a comprehensive profile of complications for analysis at M&M conference are often inadequate. 13–15 The most common of these methods include the chief resident on service reporting all complications at set time points or all residents on service maintaining their own list of complications, which are subsequently collated prior to M&M conference. 11,13 Prior studies have found these traditional methods significantly underestimate the true occurrence of complications, with more than 75% of complications not reported.…”