The CCC packet is due Thursday. Evaluations from the block that ended Friday are in. The case log for that block is still empty. Nobody in the room is confused about why logs exist. The coordinator is trying to assemble a committee file from a record that does not yet exist.
This guide is the operational answer for GME program directors, coordinators, and faculty: who owns the log, when an entry is due relative to the rotation, what complete means in ACGME language versus local policy, and where a late log stops being a chase list and starts being a Clinical Competency Committee problem. A downloadable tracker (branded Excel, with a plain-CSV alternative) is linked at the end.
Verified September 1, 2026 against ACGME Common Program Requirements and Case Log sources. Sources at the end.
This page is for ACGME-accredited residencies and fellowships. It is not a veterinary (AVMA COE) protocol, and it is not a vendor-comparison page.
| Owner | Clock | Artifact | Failure if skipped |
|---|---|---|---|
| Program director (applicability) | Before any due-date policy is written | Yes or no: this specialty uses Case Logs | You import another specialty's table |
| Resident or fellow (entry) | Local due date relative to the rotation; ACGME publishes no universal hour-count | Entries in the Case Log System | The last block is empty on freeze day |
| Program director (monitor) | Timely and accurate entry (Review Committee language where published); semi-annual review where that PDF requires it | Cumulative reports the director can regenerate | Graduation verification against a log backfilled under deadline pressure |
| Coordinator (freeze) | Named date before the CCC meets (this guide) | Frozen Case Log extract, with date range, role, and site filters written on it | The CCC synthesizes without that block |
| Coordinator + program director (year-end) | Family Medicine: August 1 graduate verification. Other specialties: pull their own archival rule | Closing-year data entered before the ADS roster advances | Graduate data locked, or the wrong program year in the Case Log System |
Who owns the log
Name the people in writing. If the work lives in "the coordinator will chase it," the Thursday packet is already late.
| Owner | Job | When it is named |
|---|---|---|
| Resident or fellow | Enters. In specialties that use the Case Log System, residents and fellows are required to log their clinical experiences. They access the system through ADS. | Orientation; restated at each block |
| Program director | Monitors and verifies. Program directors and coordinators have access, to review and monitor the logged information. At graduation, when minimums apply, the program director verifies that the resident or fellow met or exceeded them. Review Committee documents that address oversight put monitoring of timely and accurate entry on the program director. | Standing |
| Coordinator | Runs the calendar. This is this guide's own operating model, not an ACGME-named Case Log role. Someone has to pull reports before the CCC freeze, flag empty rotations, and keep the owner list current when people leave. | Before the next CCC |
| Faculty | Attest only if local policy says so. The Case Log System, as described on the ACGME Case Log System page, is resident and fellow entry with program review. Attending sign-off, role confirmation, or a required comment is local policy unless your Review Committee document says otherwise. | When local policy is drafted |
| Clinical Competency Committee | Uses what exists on meeting day. The committee synthesizes evaluations, Milestone progress, and, when Case Logs apply, the experience record. It cannot synthesize a log that was not entered. | The published meeting date |
Do not invent an ACGME faculty-approval step that your specialty's PDF does not contain.
When an entry is due
Distinguish three clocks. The Common Program Requirements set evaluation documentation at the completion of the assignment, not Case Log entry at the completion of the assignment. This guide did not fetch a universal hour-count.
| Clock | What it means | Whose clock |
|---|---|---|
| ACGME "timely" | Review Committee Case Log Guidelines that address monitoring use timely and accurate without a day count. Do not write "ACGME requires logs within 48 hours" unless your specialty's current document actually says that. | Review Committee Case Log Guidelines, when that specialty publishes them. Not a Common Program Requirement hour-count. |
| Local policy | Your GME office or program policy is where "complete for this rotation" lives: due at the last day of the block, due before the next block starts, required fields, role coding, and whether faculty attestation is required. This guide recommends a one-page local definition with a named due date relative to the rotation. If you do not have that date, the coordinator is the due date. | Program / GME office |
| CCC freeze | The Clinical Competency Committee must meet prior to the residents' semi-annual evaluations. Work backward from that meeting. Freeze Case Log reports for the packet on a named date before the meeting, the same way you would freeze any other evaluation the committee is supposed to read. Entries that arrive after freeze go on a parking list for the next cycle, or into an addendum the program director has already decided how to handle. A log entered the night before the resident meeting is not available to the CCC that already met. | This guide's own operating model. The CPR does not publish a packet-lock date. |
| Evaluation documentation (not the log) | Evaluation must be documented at the completion of the assignment. For block rotations of greater than three months in duration, evaluation must be documented at least every three months. Longitudinal experiences, such as continuity clinic in the context of other clinical responsibilities, must be evaluated at least every three months and at completion. | ACGME Common Program Requirements 5.1.a, 5.1.a.1, 5.1.a.2 |
If a rotation ends after the freeze and before the resident meeting, say so in the packet: the committee did not have that block. Do not silently paste a later extract into a file the committee did not review.
Where late logs break the CCC
The failure is sequential, not moral. The program must provide that information to the Clinical Competency Committee for its synthesis of progressive resident performance and improvement toward unsupervised practice. The Clinical Competency Committee must meet prior to the residents' semi-annual evaluations. When the last rotation's log is empty, that sequence runs on a hole.
| What breaks | Why | Freeze this guide sets |
|---|---|---|
| CCC advice to the program director | The committee is advising without the clinical experience from that block. | Freeze Case Log reports on a named date before the meeting. Park post-freeze entries. |
| Resident semi-annual meeting | The program director or their designee, with input from the Clinical Competency Committee, must meet with and review with each resident their documented semi-annual evaluation of performance, including progress along the specialty-specific Milestones. The resident meeting either discusses a gap the committee never saw, or it treats an incomplete record as if it were complete. | Use the same extract the CCC saw. |
| Individualized learning plans | Plans for residents failing to progress are being written from a file that does not include the work just done. | Name the missing block in the packet. Do not silently merge a later extract. |
| Final evaluation, when Case Logs apply | The specialty-specific Milestones, and when applicable the specialty-specific Case Logs, must be used as tools to ensure residents are able to engage in autonomous practice upon completion of the program. At graduation, the program director is asked to use that tool against a record that was backfilled under deadline pressure. | Year-end verification on the specialty's clock (Family Medicine: August 1). |
| Annual program view | Review Committees also use program-level Case Log data to assess whether a program has sufficient patient volume and cases to offer adequate education and training for its approved complement of residents and fellows. | Keep freeze extracts so the annual view is the same file the CCC held. |
Clinical Competency Committee
Review who needs discussion, capture notes, then freeze the period.
Academic period
Not finalized
Showing 4 of 4
Medium flags hidden
Show medium flagsDemonstration data. A learner flagged Needs data is the packet problem. Freeze is a named action, not a hope that the Case Log report is still moving.
A learner row flagged Needs data is the packet problem in one line: the committee cannot synthesize a log that was not entered. Freeze is a named action, not a hope that the Case Log report is still moving. This screen is the meeting file, not a case-log export.
The Obstetrics and Gynecology document states that Case Log data of program graduates play a major role in the committee's accreditation decisions regarding whether the program offers residents adequate procedural experience. Programs will receive a citation or Area for Improvement (AFI) if one or more residents do not meet the minimum procedural requirements. Programs may also receive a citation for lack of program director oversight of the Case Logs if the committee determines that residents could have met the minimums with proper program director oversight and better distribution of available cases. That is Obstetrics and Gynecology Review Committee language, not a Common Program Requirement that every specialty cites the same way.
None of those blocks is an accreditation-outcome prediction. The work either exists in time for the meeting, or the meeting runs on an incomplete file.
Does this specialty even use Case Logs?
Case Logs are specialty-specific: not all specialties and subspecialties require them. Confirm that before you build a tracker.
The ACGME Case Log System is a web application within ADS where residents and fellows (in certain specialties) are required to log their clinical experiences on an individual case basis, or in aggregate, for certain specialties. Depending on the specialty, the components used to build these cases are Common Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes, International Classification of Diseases (ICD9) codes, and/or descriptors. Program directors and coordinators have access, to review and monitor the logged information. These data are grouped into specialty-specific categories by the Review Committees.
If your specialty's Documents and Resources tab has no Case Log Information or Case Log Guidelines document, this is not your protocol. Write that fact on the tracker and stop. Do not import another specialty's table.
What complete means
Do not use one word for two jobs. A rotation can be locally complete and still be behind a specialty minimum. A resident can be ahead of a minimum and still have an incomplete last rotation.
| Complete for | What it means | What it is not |
|---|---|---|
| ACGME (when Case Logs apply) | The resident or fellow is on a path to meet or exceed the minimum Case Log requirements for their specialty/subspecialty, as applicable, by the time of graduation, as verified by their program director. The log is in the ACGME Case Log System, in the categories that Review Committee defined, with the role rules that committee published. Hitting a minimum mid-training is not complete if the Review Committee still expects reporting after the minimum, as Obstetrics and Gynecology does. | Not the same as competent. Minimum numbers are not a final target number and achievement does not signify competence. The Assessment Guidebook says volume of procedures is a crude proxy for competence. Minimum numbers of procedures required for accreditation and certification have not been rigorously validated against the actual quality of performance of an operation or patient outcomes. |
| Local policy | Every required encounter or procedure for that rotation was entered by the local due date, with the fields your policy requires. | Not a substitute for watching the minimums report. If you only watch rotation completion, you will miss a graduate who is short a category. |
| The CCC packet | The report the committee holds matches the freeze. Date range, role, and site filters are written on the report. Someone else can regenerate it. If the coordinator re-runs the report after the meeting and the numbers move, the packet the CCC used is no longer the record. | Not a live extract generated the night before the resident meeting. |
The Obstetrics and Gynecology document is also explicit that program directors must ensure residents continue to report procedures in the Case Log System after minimums are achieved. Pull your own PDF before you treat that sentence as a house rule.
What the Common Program Requirements actually require
Three facts from the 2026 Common Program Requirements (Residency) govern the calendar. They are not the same fact.
| Body | Clock | What it is not |
|---|---|---|
| CCC review of evaluations | The Clinical Competency Committee must review all resident evaluations at least semi-annually. The Clinical Competency Committee must determine each resident's progress on achievement of the specialty-specific Milestones. The Clinical Competency Committee must meet prior to the residents' semi-annual evaluations and advise the program director regarding each resident's progress. | Not a Case Log entry deadline. Not a published freeze date. |
| Information to the CCC | The program must provide that information to the Clinical Competency Committee for its synthesis of progressive resident performance and improvement toward unsupervised practice. Then the program director or their designee, with input from the Clinical Competency Committee, must meet with and review with each resident their documented semi-annual evaluation of performance, including progress along the specialty-specific Milestones. | Not permission to paste a later Case Log extract into a file the committee did not review. |
| Case Logs at completion, when they apply | The specialty-specific Milestones, and when applicable the specialty-specific Case Logs, must be used as tools to ensure residents are able to engage in autonomous practice upon completion of the program. | Not a rotation-end hour-count. Not a rule that every specialty uses Case Logs. |
| Assignment evaluations | Evaluation must be documented at the completion of the assignment. For block rotations of greater than three months in duration, evaluation must be documented at least every three months. Longitudinal experiences, such as continuity clinic in the context of other clinical responsibilities, must be evaluated at least every three months and at completion. | Not the Case Log clock. Do not treat evaluation documentation and Case Log entry as the same requirement. |
What those Common Program Requirements do not do: they do not set a number of hours or days after a case, or after a rotation ends, by which a log must be entered. "Timely" lives in Review Committee Case Log Guidelines and in your local policy. Do not treat those as the same rule.
What Review Committees add
Review Committees that publish Case Log Guidelines commonly require the program director to monitor accurate and timely entry, and to review cumulative reports with each resident at least as part of the semi-annual evaluation. That is Review Committee guidance for those specialties. It is not a Common Program Requirement that every program reviews logs on the same cadence.
| Review Committee document | Clock | What it is not |
|---|---|---|
| Obstetrics and Gynecology Case Log Information (footer 3/2025) | Program leadership is expected to review residents' Case Logs on a regular basis to ensure residents are consistently and correctly recording their cases. At a minimum, this review must take place twice a year during the semi-annual evaluation of resident performance. | Not a Common Program Requirement that every specialty shares. Minimums in that PDF are specialty-specific and are not restated here. |
| Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Case Log Coding Guidelines (footer 03/2021) | Program directors must monitor the timely entry and accuracy of their residents' procedures in the Case Log System. Cumulative reports should be reviewed with each resident at least on a semiannual basis. Programs must monitor the accurate and timely entry of cases into the system. More frequent monitoring and feedback is highly recommended. | Not a universal hour-count after a case. "Timely" is still not a day count in the fetched PDF. |
| Family Medicine Case Log Information (footer 6/2026) | For graduating or departing residents, the Case Log year end verification deadline is August 1 each year. After archival, graduate data can no longer be edited. Family Medicine Case Log Information warns that the program year of each resident in the Case Log System defaults to the resident's program year as listed in ADS. Enter closing-year data before you advance the resident's year on the ADS roster. | Not a universal ACGME due date for every rotation in every specialty. |
| July 6, 2026 e-Communication | The July 6, 2026 e-Communication announced a Neurological Surgery change effective July 1, 2026, and pointed programs to the updated Case Log Required Minimum Numbers document on the Documents and Resources page of the Neurological Surgery section. The same e-Communication said the Case Log Information document is available on the Documents and Resources page of the Family Medicine section for Academic Year 2025-2026 Case Log data collection. | Not a table of minimums to paste into a handbook. Categories move. Open yours. |
Residents and fellows are expected to meet or exceed the minimum Case Log requirements for their specialty/subspecialty, as applicable, by the time of graduation, as verified by their program director. Minimums, when a Review Committee publishes them, are specialty-specific. Pull the current PDF from the Documents and Resources tab of your specialty's section of the ACGME website. Do not paste another specialty's table into your handbook.
The operating rhythm
The structure below is boring on purpose.
- Confirm applicability. Open your specialty's Documents and Resources page. If there is no Case Log document, stop.
- Pull the current PDF. Diff it against last year's tracker. Categories move.
- Name owners: who enters, who monitors, who freezes the CCC extract, who archives.
- Write local complete in one paragraph: due relative to the rotation, required fields, faculty role if any.
- Set the CCC freeze date backward from the published meeting. Generate reports for the freeze, not the night before.
- Review with the resident at the semi-annual meeting using the same extract the CCC saw.
- At year-end, run the specialty's verification and archival rules. Family Medicine: the Case Log year end verification deadline is August 1. Enter closing-year data before you advance the resident's year on the ADS roster.
Where it goes wrong late
- Treating timely as a feeling. If local policy has no due date relative to the rotation, the coordinator is the due date.
- Treating the minimums report as the only complete test.
- Pasting another specialty's minimum table into your handbook.
- Freezing nothing. The CCC reads whatever was exported at 11 p.m.
- Advancing a resident's ADS year before Case Log data for the closing year is entered. Family Medicine Case Log Information warns that the program year of each resident in the Case Log System defaults to the resident's program year as listed in ADS.
- Single-person knowledge. The ADS access that can generate Case Log reports lives in one inbox.
The checklist
Download the case log operations tracker (Excel), or the plain CSV if you would rather import it into Google Sheets or your own tracker: every task above as a row, grouped by phase, with columns for the suggested owner, timing, status, and notes. Put real names in the owner column at your next leadership meeting. Confirm your specialty uses Case Logs first. The dates your Review Committee publishes override the suggested timing.
The workbook is a handoff into a standing process, not the system of record. If case-log owners and freeze dates already live in one place, the named people and due dates belong there.
Where a platform fits
Named owners for entry, monitoring, and freeze are a standing process: people first, then a written local due date, then a platform that keeps the list from going stale when a coordinator leaves.
The tracker above works as a walk-in list. Several of the failure points are records problems. Medtrics is one such platform: enrollment, evaluations, and outcomes live in one system of record with a governed KPI layer and exportable analytics. The case log is the experience record that has to join that list so the CCC is not synthesizing an empty block. See GME Leaders for how logging, review, and the committee file sit together. The workbook is a way to walk that process in, not a second source of truth.
None of this replaces the operating model. The named owners, the local due date, and the CCC freeze still do the work. A platform makes that boring structure durable when people leave.
Sources and status
This guide describes ACGME Case Log operations as published on acgme.org. It was verified against the primary sources named below, each fetched on September 1, 2026. That stamp covers the Common Program Requirement sequence, the Case Log System facts, and the Review Committee documents named in the tables. Specialty minimum counts were fetched and are not restated here, because they are specialty-specific and they move. Whatever this page says, the authoritative version of every requirement is the current document on acgme.org, not any article, including this one.
- Common Program Requirements (Residency) including FAQs, effective July 1, 2026: evaluation clocks, CCC sequence, Case Logs as a final-evaluation tool when applicable. 2026 CPR PDF
- ACGME Answers: A Look at Case Log Minimums (September 26, 2024): not all specialties require Case Logs; Case Log System inside ADS; meet or exceed minimums by graduation as verified by the program director; Review Committees use program-level volume. blog
- Case Log System page and Help Center About the Case Log System: individual case entry; CPT, ICD9, and/or descriptors; program review tools. Case Log System · Help Center
- Assessment Guidebook (2020): volume is a crude proxy for competence; minimums not rigorously validated against performance quality. guidebook
- July 6, 2026 e-Communication: Family Medicine Case Log Information on that specialty's Documents and Resources page; Neurological Surgery minimums change effective July 1, 2026, document on that specialty's Documents and Resources page. e-Communication
- Family Medicine Case Log Information (6/2026): August 1 graduate verification; define data-entry owners; ADS year vs Case Log year. FM PDF
- Obstetrics and Gynecology Case Log Information (3/2025): semi-annual review minimum; minimums are not competence; continue logging after minimums; annual program review of graduate logs. OB/GYN PDF
- Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Case Log Coding Guidelines (03/2021): timely entry and accuracy; semiannual review of cumulative reports. OTO PDF
ACGME is named descriptively. This article is an independent operational guide from Medtrics, not ACGME guidance, and no process described here promises any accreditation outcome. The work does that, or nothing does.