Abstract
The Liaison Committee for Medical Education (LCME) was scheduled to visit the University of Michigan Medical School (UMMS) in April 2020 for the every-eight-year accreditation survey visit, following an18-month self-study period, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. The LCME was hopeful to reschedule the in-person visit from five external site visitors for July 2020, but the pandemic protocols necessitated a change to a virtual survey visit, scheduled for July 8-9 and September 14, 2020. This modality change, with less than four weeks notice, required strong collaboration and organization from the LCME team from the Medical School and Health Information Technology and Services (HITS) organization to deliver effective technology and provide resources to support the virtual visit, with a very short lead time.
This poster will detail the process of planning and execution of the second-ever virtual LCME medical school accreditation site visit, and the first to be hosted by the visited school using Zoom. The collaborative planning process used by the LCME/HITS team will be described, including the criteria used for selecting Zoom as the video conferencing tool. The innovative meeting design will be presented, detailing the use of Zoom breakout rooms to provide a virtual ‘foyer’ for entrance to the meeting and a flow of breakout rooms to allow pre-meeting preparation, official meetings, and post-meeting debrief sessions for over 80 UMMS participants and five external site visitors. Recommendations will be provided for optimal business and IT support needed to execute large, high-stakes meetings while staff are working remotely.