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No./Title: COM125/Procedures to Ensure Timely Submission of Summative Assessments |
Resp. Office: Medical Education Approval Body: CUME |
Effective Date: 12/20/21 |
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Category: COM/UME |
Last Review: 1/27/25 |
Next Review: 1/27/28 |
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Contact: Michael Whitt, Ph.D. Assoc. Dean for Medical Education |
901-448-4634 | |
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Related Policy: COM107 – Grading for the MD Curriculum |
POLICY
It is the policy of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) College of Medicine (COM) to have procedures in place to ensure the timely submission of student evaluations following clinical rotations.
RATIONALE AND PROCEDURE
The LCME requires that grades be submitted promptly after every course. As stated in Element 9.8: “A medical school has in place a system of fair and timely summative assessment of medical student achievement in each course and clerkship of the medical education program. Final grades are available within six weeks of the end of a course or clerkship”.
It is essential that evaluations be submitted in a timely manner by all faculty who participate in clinical rotations, indicating whether a student has achievedcompetency for the indicated Entrusted Professional Activities (EPAs), etc., since these evaluations are required to determine a student’s grade. To avoid late submissions the following procedural timeline has been developed.
- No later than the date of course completion, coordinators initiate reminders to evaluators from the eMedley system.
- At one (1) week after course completion, the clinical records specialist (CRS) runs a grade report and sends to coordinators who identify students who have an incomplete (I) or remediate (R) grade.
- At two (2) weeks aftercourse completion, the CRS runs a grade report and sends to coordinators. The coordinator notifies the course/clerkship director (CD) of any evaluation/grade that has yet to be submitted. The CD will the personally reach out to the evaluator ( preferably by phone/text message in addition to email) to complete the evaluations. Faculty evaluators are responsible for reminding residents to submit evaluations. If residents are not responsive the faculty member should contact the Program Director (PD).
- At three (3) weeks the CRS runs a grade report and sends to coordinator and course director. At 3 weeks, the CD will personally contact the evaluator and also notify the senior/assistant deans of clinical curriculum (Memphis campus) or assistant deans of UME (regional campuses ). The CD may involve the department chair at this step to ensure timely submission of evaluations. If the missing evaluation is from a resident, the CD should contact the PD and the Associate Dean for Graduate Medical Education who will take steps to ensure submission.
- At four (4) weeks (due date), the CRS runs a grade report and sends to the coordinators and CDs. The CDs will again contact the evaluators with delinquent evaluations and will also notify the senior/assistant deans of clinical curriculum (all campuses), department chairs, and regional campus deans (for regional campuses) of any overdue evaluations/grades.
- At five (5) weeks, the CRS runs a grade report and sends to the CDs and coordinators. In addition to the individuals mentioned in the previous steps, the CD will also notify the Executive Dean of the delinquency. The faculty member will get a warning letter in their file indicating failure to meet expectations for timely submission of grades, and the chair will include this in the faculty member’s annual evaluation. Other approaches to addressing the deficiency will be at the discretion of the chair.
- The number of late evaluations (past 5 weeks) will be considered in a department chair’s annual evaluation by the Executive Dean.
APPROVAL HISTORY
Effective: 12/20/21
Revised: 1/27/25
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