Associations of Internal Medicine Residency Ratings and Certification Examination Scores With Patient Outcomes

To the Editor A recent study found that among newly trained hospitalists, higher certification examination scores were associated with improved outcomes for hospitalized Medicare beneficiaries, whereas residency milestone ratings did not show a similar association. These are thought-provoking findings that prompt reflection on how residency programs and their clinical competency committees evaluate and interpret residents’ performance and readiness for unsupervised practice.