701 - Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Fellowship Program Leadership Perspectives on ACGME Annual Survey Preparation.

Publication Number: 2684.701

Nayef Chahin, Children's Hospital of Richmond at VCU, Richmond, VA, United States; Beverley Robin, Rush University Medical Center Simulation Center, Chicago, IL (ORD), IL, United States; Megan M. Gray, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA, United States; Patrick Myers, Northwestern University The Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL, United States; Courtney K. McLean, University of Nebraska College of Medicine, Omaha, NE, United States; Nicolle Fernández. Dyess, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Denver, CO, United States; Cara Beth Carr, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC, United States; Suma B. Hoffman, Children’s National, Bethesda, MD, United States; Elizabeth A. Hillman, McGovern Medical School at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX, United States; Brooke D. Vergales, Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, Scarsdale, NY, United States; Vilmaris Quinones-Cardona, Drexel University College of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, United States

Background: Since 2004, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) has conducted an annual survey to assess US graduate medical education (GME) programs and provide information on areas of non-compliance. The ACGME requires each program to achieve a 70% survey response rate. However, the survey's utility is limited by the lack of best practices in program survey preparation.

Objective: To identify challenges and strategies for achieving ACGME survey preparedness among US Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine (NPM) fellowship programs.

Design/Methods: An anonymous mixed-methods electronic survey was developed in REDCap and distributed to all US NPM fellowship program leaders via the Organization of Neonatal-Perinatal Training Program Directors (ONTPD) listserv between June and September 2025. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and thematic analysis.

Results: We received 46 responses (43% response rate). Respondents had a median of 6.5 years (range: 5-25) of leadership experience in GME, and programs had a median of 8 fellows (range: 3-19). The primary challenge reported by 90% of respondents was low fellow and faculty survey engagement, followed by lack of alignment between trainee expectations and ACGME requirements, limited staff and faculty bandwidth to prepare for the survey, lack of clarity among faculty and fellows on how survey questions relate to the fellowship program structure, and ambiguity on how to address prior citations (Figure 1). Four key themes emerged: ambiguous survey wording, trainees' perceived lack of teaching, perceptions of faculty commitment to trainee education, fears about anonymity or retaliation, and differing views on the balance between education and service (Figure 2). Strategies to promote survey preparation included GME-led review of prior survey results, use of internal surveys tailored to program evaluation, and pre-survey retreats (Figure 3).

Conclusion(s): US NPM fellowship program directors face significant challenges with ACGME survey readiness, most notably poor engagement from faculty and fellows and lack of alignment between trainee expectations and ACGME requirements. Suggested strategies for promoting survey preparation should inform next steps in optimizing how programs can utilize the ACGME survey to improve program quality.

Figure 1
Top Challenges reported by respondents

Figure 2
Key challenges identified via thematic analysis

Figure 3
Strategies used to prepare for the annual ACGME survey recommended from Neonatal Perinatal Fellowship Program Leadership