Board certification, MOC, and competence

Should maintenance of certification (MOC) play a part in credentials verification? Today's Quick Tip, from Proctoring, FPPE, and Practitioner Competency Assessment: A Clinical Leader's Guide, considers this question. The world of board certification is complicated by the fact that many physicians subspecialize and many specialty societies offer subspecialty boards or “certificates of added qualifications.” It is often a challenge for these doctors to maintain board certification in their original board and subspecialty board(s). For example, should a physician who becomes board certified in child and adolescent psychiatry also be expected to maintain her boards in general psychiatry?

When evaluating the board certification history of a practitioner, it is important to look at her training and practice chronology and match this up with the actual boards she chooses to maintain. Where physicians choose not to participate in an MOC program, it is always prudent to ask whether this is a reflection on that clinician’s competence. While many competent physicians will forgo MOC , there are certainly doctors whose competence is marginal or inadequate who would not be capable of achieving ongoing board certification.

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