Informing the Design of a New Pragmatic Registry to Stimulate Near Miss Reporting in Ambulatory Care.

OBJECTIVE: Ambulatory care safety is of emerging concern, especially in light of recent studies related to diagnostic errors and health information technology-related safety. Safety reporting systems in outpatient care must address the top safety concerns and be practical and simple to use. A registry that can identify common near misses in ambulatory care can be useful to facilitate safety improvements. We reviewed the literature on medical errors in the ambulatory setting to inform the design of a registry for collecting near miss incidents. METHODS: This narrative review included articles from PubMed that were: 1) original research; 2) discussed near misses or adverse events in the ambulatory setting; 3) relevant to US health care; and 4) published between 2002 and 2013. After full text review, 38 studies were searched for information on near misses and associated factors. Additionally, we used expert opinion and current inpatient near miss registries to inform registry development. RESULTS: Studies included a variety of safety issues including diagnostic errors, treatment or management-related errors, communication errors, environmental/structural hazards, and health information technology (health IT)-related concerns. The registry, based on the results of the review, updates previous work by including specific sections for errors associated with diagnosis, communication, and environment structure and incorporates specific questions about the role of health information technology. CONCLUSIONS: Through use of this registry or future registries that incorporate newly identified categories, near misses in the ambulatory setting can be accurately captured, and that information can be used to improve patient safety.

Rotation in a Smoking Cessation Clinic Improves Nicotine Dependence Treatment Provided by First-Year Internal Medicine Trainees.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Over 70% of smokers visit a physician annually, and physicians are well-positioned to assist patients in smoking cessation. Residency offers the ideal setting to train physicians in best practices for treatment of nicotine dependence. We hypothesized that experiential learning during a smoking cessation medical clinic (SCMC) rotation would be associated with an improvement in smoking cessation practice of internal medicine (IM) interns in outpatient primary care and inpatient settings. METHODS: This was a prospective study performed at a large university-affiliated hospital. Forty IM interns rotated through SCMC. After a lecture on nicotine addiction and treatment, interns treated SCMC patients under direct supervision of an attending pulmonologist. Interns' smoking cessation practices before and after SCMC rotation were evaluated through chart review over 1 year. Upon study completion, a survey to assess confidence was administered. Paired t tests measured changes in rates of identifying smokers, offering pharmacological treatment and counseling. RESULTS: A total of 5,622 outpatient and 683 inpatient charts of interns' encounters with patients were reviewed. Following SCMC rotation, there was an increase in identifying active smokers (7.1% versus 18.7%), prescribing therapy for smoking cessation (6.5% versus 18.0%), and providing counseling (30.9% versus 42.3%) to outpatients. For inpatients, there was an increase in nicotine replacement during admission (12.9% versus 37.4%) and prescription of therapy upon discharge (5.7% versus 16.1%). Interns reported confidence in providing appropriate counseling and treatment. CONCLUSIONS: SCMC experience positively impacted smoking cessation treatment by IM interns, causing a measurable change in their practice.

A National Survey to Evaluate Graduate Medical Education in Disparities and Limited English Proficiency: A Report From the AAIM Diversity and Inclusion Committee.

OBJECTIVES: This article presents the results of a national survey addressing issues related to patients with limited English proficiency. METHODS: We disseminated a national confidential survey to 391 program directors of Internal Medicine residency programs accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. RESULTS: Seventy percent of program directors indicated that their residents cared for a patient population that was composed of more than 10% limited-English-proficiency patients. Nineteen percent of residency programs provided no education on caring for patients with limited English proficiency. Thirty percent of program directors felt that their faculty could not adequately evaluate residents on their ability to practice culturally competent care, and 68% cited lack of faculty expertise as a significant barrier to implementing a curriculum in cultural competency. Yet only 24% indicated that they had faculty development relevant to cultural competency and health care disparities. CONCLUSIONS: Internal Medicine residents care for many patients with limited English proficiency. While it seems clear that an effective training curriculum is necessary, such a curriculum was not found to be uniformly present. Additionally, the lack of faculty expertise and faculty development in cultural competency and health care disparities is a significant barrier to the correction of this problem.

Internal medicine residents' perspectives on effects of 2011 ACGME work hour regulations on patient care.

BACKGROUND: The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) introduced new work hour limitations in July 2011. PURPOSES: The aim is to assess internal medicine residents' perspectives on the impact of these limitations on their ability to discharge patient care duties. METHODS: An anonymous survey was administered to 158 medicine residents in an urban university-affiliated internal medicine residency program. Residents' perspectives on various aspects of patient care were recorded on a 5-point Likert-type scale. RESULTS: The response rate was 62%. The majority of residents (80%) agreed that patients had adequate continuity of care. Most residents agreed that they had enough time to follow up on consult notes (64% agreed) and investigations (80% agreed) daily. Most PGY-1 residents (59%) reported having enough time to prepare sign-outs. Most (60%) residents felt that reducing handoffs would improve patient care. CONCLUSIONS: Most residents believe that the new work hour limitations would continue to uphold patient safety, but handoffs in care must be restricted.

The role that graduate medical education must play in ensuring health equity and eliminating health care disparities.

Despite the 2002 Institute of Medicine report that described the moral and financial impact of health care disparities and the need to address them, it is evident that health care disparities persist. Recommendations for addressing disparities include collecting and reporting data on patient race and ethnicity, supporting language interpretation services, increasing awareness of health care disparities through education, requiring cultural competency training for all health care professionals, and increasing diversity among those delivering health care. The Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education places strong emphasis on graduate medical education's role in eliminating health care disparities by asking medical educators to objectively evaluate and report on their trainees' ability to practice patient-centered, culturally competent care. Moreover, one of the objectives of the Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education Clinical Learning Environment Review visits as part of the Next Accreditation System is to identify how sponsoring institutions engage residents and fellows in the use of data to improve systems of care, reduce health care disparities, and improve patient outcomes. Residency and fellowship programs should ensure the delivery of meaningful curricula on cultural competency and health care disparities, for which there are numerous resources, and ensure resident assessment of culturally competent care. Moreover, training programs and institutional leadership need to collaborate on ensuring data collection on patient satisfaction, outcomes, and quality measures that are broken down by patient race, cultural identification, and language. A diverse physician workforce is another strategy for mitigating health care disparities, and using strategies to enhance faculty diversity should also be a priority of graduate medical education. Transparent data about institutional diversity efforts should be provided to interested medical students, residents, and faculty. Graduate medical education has a clear charge to ensure a generation of physicians who are firmly grounded in the principles of practicing culturally competent care and committed to the reduction of health care disparities.

Patient satisfaction and resident postgraduate year status.

PURPOSE: Patient satisfaction has been recognized as an important variable affecting healthcare behavior. However, there are limited data on the relationship between doctor post-graduate year (PGY) status and patient satisfaction with provider interpersonal skills and humanistic qualities. The authors aims to assess this relationship using an American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) questionnaire. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: Participants were: patients attending a primary care clinic at a large urban academic hospital; and physicians treating them. The survey questionnaire was the ABIM patient satisfaction instrument; ten questions pertaining to humanistic qualities and communication skills with responses from poor to excellent. Mann Whitney U test and multi-variable logistic regression analyses were used to explore score differences by PGY level. FINDINGS: The postgraduate year one (PGY1) had higher patient-satisfaction levels compared to PGY2/PGY3 residents. The PGY1 level residents were more likely to score in the 90th percentile and this remained constant even after adjusting for confounders. RESEARCH LIMITATIONS/IMPLICATIONS: The research was a single-center study and may have been subject to confounding factors such as patient personality types and a survey ceiling effect. The survey's cross-sectional nature may also be a potential limitation. Practical implications - Patient satisfaction varies significantly with PGY status. Though clinical skills may improve with increasing experience, findings imply that interpersonal and humanistic qualities may deteriorate. ORIGINALITY/VALUE: The study is the first to assess patient satisfaction with PGY status and provides evidence that advanced trainees may need support to keep their communication skills and humanistic qualities from deteriorating as stressors increase to ensure optimal patient satisfaction.

A novel concept in residency education: case-based remediation.

BACKGROUND: Resident remediation is required for all residents who do not meet minimum standards in one or more of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education core competencies. The Council of Residency Directors in Emergency Medicine Remediation Taskforce identified the need for case-based examples of remediation efforts. OBJECTIVES: 1) To describe a complicated resident remediation case and employ consensus panel evaluation of the process. 2) To discuss the available assessment tools (including neuropsychologic/medical testing), due process, documentation, reassessment, and relevant barriers to implementation for this and other resident remediations. DISCUSSION: Details of a remediation case were altered to protect resident confidentiality, and then presented to a multidisciplinary group of program directors. The case details, action plan, and course were submitted and the remediation process, action plan, and course are assessed based on a standardized remediation approach. The resident entered remediation for poor organizational skills and an inability to make or follow through with patient care plans. Opportunities for improvement in the applied remediation process are identified and discussed. Legal concerns and utility of neuropsychological assessment of residents are reviewed. CONCLUSIONS: Remediation requires a complicated and detailed effort. This case demonstrates issues that program directors may face when working with residents and provides suggestions for use of specific remediation tools.