Inter-clinician eConsults without programmatic incentives or requirements: a qualitative study of primary care provider perspectives.

BACKGROUND: Inter-clinician electronic consultation (eConsult) programmes are becoming more widespread in the USA as health care systems seek innovative ways of improving specialty access. Existing studies examine models with programmatic incentives or requirements for primary care providers (PCPs) to participate. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to examine PCP perspectives on eConsults in a system with no programmatic incentive or requirement for PCPs to use eConsults. METHODS: We conducted seven focus groups with 41 PCPs at a safety-net community teaching health care system in Eastern Massachusetts, USA. RESULTS: Focus groups revealed that eConsults improved PCP experience by enabling patient-centred care and enhanced PCP education. However, increased workload and variations in communication patterns added challenges for PCPs. Patients were perceived as receiving timelier and more convenient care. Timelier care combined with direct documentation in the patient record was perceived as improving patient safety. Although cost implications were less clear, PCPs perceived costs as being lowered through fewer unnecessary visits and laboratories. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that eConsult systems with no programmatic incentives or requirements for PCPs have the potential to improve care.

A Consensus Guideline to Support Resident-as-Teacher Programs and Enhance the Culture of Teaching and Learning.

BACKGROUND: Methods for assessing residents as teachers are limited, and it can be difficult to discern optimal curricula for training residents as educators. A guideline may be a tool to assess resident-as-teacher programs and to help enhance a culture of teaching and learning. OBJECTIVE: We developed a consensus guideline to assess academic medical centers' resident-as-teacher programs and teaching environments. METHODS: Faculty representing 8 specialties from 5 teaching hospitals created a guideline for resident-as-teacher programs through an iterative expert consensus development process. To assess local resident-as-teacher practices, the guideline was administered as an online survey to program directors from 47 residency programs at 5 hospitals. The survey included 26 items addressing curricula, educational climate, financial support, assessment, professional development, and promotion. RESULTS: Forty-nine percent of residency programs surveyed completed the questionnaire, representing 65% of specialties (17 of 26). Respondents reported that residents were required to participate in a teaching orientation in 78% of programs (18 of 23) and were evaluated on teaching in 91% (21 of 23). There were special educational programs and teaching awards in 91% of programs (21 of 23), respectively. All programs included evaluations of faculty teaching, which were linked to faculty annual reviews in 52% of programs (12 of 23), but to faculty promotion or salary in only 22% of programs (5 of 23). CONCLUSIONS: We developed a resident-as-teacher consensus guideline that could provide a road map for program directors and institutions to think broadly about how they educate residents and fellows as teachers.

CEO-CLER Innovation Grants Program: Empowering Residents as Clinical Learning Environment Change Agents.

BACKGROUND: Many efforts over the past decade have focused on developing quality improvement and safety curricula for residents. Sponsoring institutions have encountered challenges aligning resident projects with institutional quality and safety priorities, engaging faculty mentors, and securing support for resident initiatives from executive leadership. OBJECTIVE: We developed a small grants program to support resident-led change projects intended to improve the clinical learning environment. We assessed program acceptability to residents and faculty, impact of program structure in supporting successful change projects, and program feasibility and financial sustainability. METHODS: Program acceptability was assessed through a review of resident participation. Three aspects of resident change project success were considered: (1) accomplishment of stated aims; (2) institutional change beyond the end of grant funding; and (3) academic publication or presentation. The impact of program structure on project success was assessed through a review of submitted end-of-year narrative reports. RESULTS: The Award Selection Committee has given 41 awards to 44 residents over 4 years, engaging 21% (44 of 213) of residents. Seventy-one percent of projects (29 of 41) produced changes that continued beyond the grant year, and 46% (19 of 41) produced an academic publication or presentation. At the end of the grant period that funded the program's initial 3 years, the chief executive officer elected to continue program funding. CONCLUSIONS: A small grants program supporting resident-led change projects intended to improve the clinical learning environment is acceptable to residents and faculty, feasible to administer, and sustainable with support from institutional senior leaders.

Training Internal Medicine Residents in Social Medicine and Research-Based Health Advocacy: A Novel, In-Depth Curriculum.

PROBLEM: Health disparities are pervasive worldwide. Physicians have a unique vantage point from which they can observe the ways social, economic, and political factors impact health outcomes and can be effective advocates for enhanced health outcomes and health equity. However, social medicine and health advocacy curricula are uncommon in postgraduate medical education. APPROACH: In academic year (AY) 2012, the Cambridge Health Alliance internal medicine residency program transformed an elective into a required social medicine and research-based health advocacy curriculum. The course has three major innovations: it has a yearlong longitudinal curriculum, it is required for all residents, and all residents complete a group research-based health advocacy project within the curricular year. The authors describe the structure, content, and goals of this curriculum. OUTCOMES: Over the last four years (AYs 2012-2015), residents (17/32; 53%) have rated the overall quality of the course highly (mean = 5.2, where 6 = outstanding; standard deviation = 0.64). In each year since the new course has been implemented, all scholarly work from the course has been presented at conferences by 31 resident presenters and/or coauthors. The course seems to enhance the residency program's capacity to recruit high-caliber residents and faculty members. NEXT STEPS: The authors are collecting qualitative and quantitative data on the impact of the course. They will use their findings to advocate for a national health advocacy competency framework. Recommendations about how to initiate or further develop social medicine and health advocacy curricula are offered.

Community health training for internal medicine residents working with community partners.

Graduate and undergraduate medical training are incorporating public health curricula into their programs to enable future physicians to participate in public health activities and improve the health of the communities. This paper highlights two approaches to a community health curriculum implemented at the Cambridge Health Alliance Internal Medicine Training Program from 2008-2010. Between 2008 and 2009, the residency program incorporated a longitudinal curriculum for first-year residents. The goal of the curriculum was to expose residents to basic community health research models while giving them time to participate in a 1-year practicum with the Cambridge Public Health Department. Strengths included increasing resident knowledge about the local public health department and providing residents with an opportunity to work with staff and patients in that setting. Limitations of such a design included staff time constraints for coordinating with community partners as well as resident dissatisfaction with being involved in only select portions of an evolving project. This curriculum was therefore revised into a 1-month ambulatory block consisting of didactics and a practicum with the local YWCA in September 2010. Residents felt that this design yielded more time in didactics than in the practicum. Both designs offer important learning points in terms of practically incorporating public health activities in a tightly scheduled residency-training program. The current paper highlights the importance of partnering with a community organization such as a public health department or the YWCA. Emphasis is placed on the contributions that residents can make to these organizations while they learn how to integrate clinical and community health activities.