10/07/2015    Name Withheld

ABFAS Sharktank

I am finally relieved to hear that people are as
fed up as I am with this board certification. I
have many colleagues in other fields and they do
not share the same experience as I do with
becoming board certified. Their exams are
structured as written and oral. There is no need
for their own cases to be submitted. But
nonetheless, I noticed the criticism on the cases
to be a bit outlandish as if they are looking to
fail you. For instance, a case that was failed
was an amputation and the criticism was that I
failed to show radiographic evidence of healing.
Another example was that I failed to manage an
antibiotic properly when the patient was under
the care of an infectious disease specialist.
Most of my patients who have infections do get
consults with infectious disease specialist and
it's not unusual that the specialist is managing
the course of antibiotics. Other issues that I
have encountered with this board are as follows :

1. Poor customer service. For all the money you
pay you cannot get someone on the phone. There is
one person who is in charge of answering all your
questions but he never answers the phone and
never calls you back even after you leave an
important message.

2. I passed the Part II oral and written exams
within the 7 year time frame and then when my
cases were not accepted I was forced to retake
Part I examination because my qualification was
expired. This has cost me thousands of dollars
and that does not include my time lost from work
and travel expenses.

3. Additionally, they chose cases from so many
years ago that finding charts and gathering xrays
becomes nearly impossible. Not many people work
in the same office, many hospitals have closed or
have relocated their charts. I am happy to do all
the chart gathering and taking time off of work
to visit medical records but find that even
following their guidelines closely results in
failure. I can proudly say that I have never
failed an examination in podiatry and that I am
board certified by ABPM. However after doing a 3
year surgical residency, I am thinking either my
residency didn't prepare me for these boards or
that all this retaking of exams is a plan to
collect lots of money. I am discouraged for the
future as I know it is critical to have them for
hospital privileges and insurance companies. I
agree with the previously mentioned comments that
this board is killing our profession.

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