1. JA PARS is the traffic controller for creating activities.
For those providers new to joint accreditation, JA PARS stands for “Joint Accreditation Program and Activity Reporting System.” The Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education has required providers to register their activities in this web portal from 2018 onward. 

CPE Monitor is a collaborative effort by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education and the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy to provide an online platform for pharmacists and pharmacy technicians to track their completed continuing pharmacy education credits.

For joint accredited providers, JA PARS is the only place an activity will need to be created to enable reporting in CPE Monitor. When an activity is created in JA PARS, it will also be created in CPE Monitor.

2. Learner credit records are not reported to JA PARS.
This is a common misunderstanding. With some exceptions, only participation counts are reported to JA PARS. See item No. 5 for more information. 

3. Pharmacist and pharmacy technician participation counts are not sent to JA PARS.
JA PARS accepts participant counts for physician, nurses and others. Pharmacist and pharmacy technician counts are excluded. This is because...

4. Pharmacist and pharmacy technician credits are still reported via CPE Monitor.
There has been no change in the way pharmacist and pharmacy technicians report their credits. They must report to CPE Monitor within 60 days after completing the activity.

5. MOC credits are reported to speciality boards through JA PARS.
The only credits that are currently reported to JA PARS are MOC credits for use by speciality boards. (However do take note of the state medical board pilot). Participating boards allow JA PARS to provide a single interface for reporting credits, reducing the workload for those providers reporting to multiple boards. Currently, JA PARS supports ABA, ABIM, ABO, ABOHNS, ABPath and ABP specialty boards. The supported boards are listed online.

6. Partial credit is now supported in CPE Monitor.
Partial credit is used when a participant attends only part of an accredited activity, for example, if a participant attends only 30 minutes of a 1-hour activity.

For non-joint-accredited providers, only full credit for an activity can be provided to pharmacists and pharmacy technicians. However, for joint accredited providers, CPE Monitor will accept partial credit. 

As an example, say an institution has a ground rounds series that will comprise 30 sessions. Each session is worth an hour of credit, and the entire series offers 30 hours of credit. If a learner only attends 15 sessions, they should claim 15 credit hours. 

However for non-joint accredited providers, CPE Monitor will not allow that partial credit. The learner would be able to report only 30 credit hours. That’s problematic, as it doesn’t accurately reflect the participation of the learner. To avoid this, the provider would have to create multiple activity records in CPE Monitor.

To resolve this issue, CPE Monitor now provides a way to add, upload or transmit partial credit hours for joint accredited providers. Pharmacists can claim 15 credit hours for an activity with 30 total hours of credit. Or they could claim 30 minutes for a 1-hour activity. 

This feature was added in 2018 and CPE Monitor asks that providers contact them at info@jointaccreditation.org before issuing partial credit.

7. One chart to explain it all
In the diagram below, we’ve illustrated the workflows.

1. The activity coordinator creates the activity. This assumes that coordinators have a tracking system, such as a learning management system or other software. However the workflow here would still apply to manual data entry or bulk uploads.
2. The system sends the activity record to JA PARS.
3. JA PARS sends the activity record to CPE Monitor and the Nursing Activity Reporting System (NARS) as appropriate.
4. The learner enrolls in an activity. 
5. The learning management system determines if the learner is a physician, nurse or other type of participant and reports the count to JA PARS and NARS.
6. The learner participates in the activity and claims credit. 
7. If the learner is claiming MOC credit for an eligible board, the credit record is sent to JA PARS and then to the board.
8. If the learner is claiming pharmacy credit, the credit record is sent to CPE Monitor.