From concept to culture: the WWAMI program at the University of Washington School of Medicine.

Shortages of primary care physicians have historically affected rural areas more severely than urban and suburban areas. In 1970, the University of Washington School of Medicine (UWSOM) administrators and faculty initiated a four-state, community-based program to increase the number of generalist physicians throughout a predominantly rural and underserved region in the U.S. Northwest. The program developed regional medical education for three neighboring states that lacked their own medical schools, and encouraged physicians in training to practice in the region. Now serving five Northwest states (Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho), the WWAMI program has solidified and expanded throughout its 30-year history. Factors important to success include widespread participation in and ownership of the program by the participating physicians, faculty, institutions, legislatures, and associations; partnership among constituents; educational equivalency among training sites; and development of an educational continuum with recruitment and/or training at multiple levels, including K--12, undergraduate, graduate training, residency, and practice. The program's positive influences on the UWSOM have included historically early attention to primary care and community-based clinical training and development of an ethic of closely monitored innovation. The use of new information technologies promises to further expand the ability to organize and offer medical education in the WWAMI region.

Communicating with dying patients within the spectrum of medical care from terminal diagnosis to death.

BACKGROUND: Efforts to improve communication between physicians and dying patients have been unsuccessful, and guidelines for improving patient-physician communication about end-of-life care are based primarily on expert opinion. This study assessed which aspects of communication between patients and physicians are important in end-of-life care. METHODS: Twenty focus groups were held with 137 individuals, including patients with chronic and terminal illnesses, family members, health care professionals from hospice or acute care settings, and physicians with expertise in end-of-life care. Focus group analyses determined domains of physician skill at end-of-life care. Communication with patients was identified as one of the most important domains. Analyses of components important in communicating with dying patients and their families were performed. RESULTS: The following 6 areas were of central importance in communicating with dying patients: talking with patients in an honest and straightforward way, being willing to talk about dying, giving bad news in a sensitive way, listening to patients, encouraging questions from patients, and being sensitive to when patients are ready to talk about death. Within these components, subthemes emerged that provide guidelines for physicians and educators. Dying patients also identified the need to achieve a balance between being honest and straightforward and not discouraging hope. CONCLUSIONS: Several areas emerged for physicians to focus their attention on when communicating with dying patients. These findings provide guidance in how to improve this communication. They also highlight the need to approach communication about end-of-life care as a spectrum that requires attention from the time of a terminal diagnosis through death.

Understanding physicians' skills at providing end-of-life care perspectives of patients, families, and health care workers.

BACKGROUND: A framework for understanding and evaluating physicians' skills at providing end of life care from the perspectives of patients, families, and health care workers will promote better quality of care at the end of life. OBJECTIVE: To develop a comprehensive understanding of the factors contributing to the quality of physicians' care for dying patients. DESIGN: Qualitative study using focus groups and content analysis based on grounded theory. SETTING: Seattle, Washington. PARTICIPANTS: Eleven focus groups of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, AIDS, or cancer (79 patients); 3 groups of family members who had a loved one die of chronic disease (20 family members); 4 groups of nurses and social workers from hospice or acute care settings (27 health care workers); and 2 groups of physicians with expertise in end-of-life care (11 physicians). RESULTS: We identified 12 domains of physicians' skills at providing end-of-life care: accessibility and continuity; team coordination and communication; communication with patients; patient education; inclusion and recognition of the family; competence; pain and symptom management; emotional support, personalization; attention to patient values; respect and humility; and support of patient decision making. within these domains, we identified 55 specific components of physicians' skills. Domains identified most frequently by patients and families were emotional support and communication with patients. Patients with the 3 disease groups, families, and health care workers identified all 12 domains. Investigators used transcript analyses to construct a conceptual model of physicians' skills at providing end-of-life care that grouped domains into 5 categories. CONCLUSIONS: The 12 domains encompass the major aspects of physicians' skills at providing high-quality end-of-life care from the perspectives of patients, their families, and health care workers, and provide a new framework for understanding, evaluating, and teaching these skills. Our findings should focus physicians, physician-educators, and researchers on communication, emotional support, and accessibility to improve the quality of end-of-life care.

History-taking and preventive medicine skills among primary care physicians: an assessment using standardized patients.

BACKGROUND: The ability of primary care physicians to obtain important clinical information in initial encounters with new patients is a core competency that has received little attention in previous studies. This paper describes the history-taking and preventive screening skills of practicing primary care physicians in initial interactions with ambulatory patients, as determined by a large panel of standardized patients. METHODS: Standardized patient cases with diverse presentations were developed and used to assess the clinical skills of 134 primary care physicians from five Northwest states. Scoring categories for each case identified the percentage and content of essential history items and preventive screening items performed. Physicians' scores were compared by training and practice characteristics. RESULTS: Physicians asked 59% of essential history items. They frequently obtained appropriate information about presenting symptoms and medications, but they often missed important information about related symptoms and medical history. Physicians frequently screened for smoking and alcohol use, but rarely asked about recreational drug use. Although board-certified general internists performed more comprehensive histories than board-certified family practitioners in the same amount of time, both groups of providers missed a large number of items that should have been influential in developing diagnostic and treatment plans. CONCLUSIONS: Primary care physicians may miss important patient information in their initial interactions with patients. Medical intake questionnaires or other approaches should be considered to ensure that more complete and accurate information is available to guide diagnostic and treatment plans.

HIV risk screening in the primary care setting. Assessment of physicians skills.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the content and extent of HIV risk assessment by primary care physicians across a diverse panel of patients with unidentified HIV risk behaviors. DESIGN: Standardized patient examination to assess primary care physicians' skills at identifying and managing HIV infection and overall clinical skills. In a day of testing, physicians saw 13-16 standardized patients (SPs) with diverse case presentations. In analyses presented here, physician performance was examined with nine SPs who had unidentified risks for HIV, which they offered if asked. SETTING: An academic clinic. PARTICIPANTS: We randomly selected 134 paid volunteers (general internists and family/general practitioners) after stratifying by specialty, experience caring for patients with HIV infection, and year of medical school graduation. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Performance at initiating HIV risk screening and identifying patients' HIV risk behaviors were the main outcome measures. Physicians performed variably at HIV risk screening with different patients and across different HIV risk screening topics. Although physicians initiated screening with 60% of patients, they identified only 49% of risk behaviors and included HIV in the differential diagnosis for less than half of at-risk patients. Physicians performed better with cases in which there was a higher probability of HIV infection based on symptoms, but often did not screen at-risk patients without obvious symptoms suggestive of HIV. Board-certified general internists initiated screening and identified risk behaviors with more patients than board-certified family practitioners. Medical school graduation year also influenced performance. CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggest that primary care physicians do not routinely perform HIV risk assessments with patients who have risk behaviors for HIV infection. Methods are needed to develop, standardize, and disseminate better screening techniques to identify patients with or at risk of developing HIV infection, such as written HIV risk screening questions for use in medical intake forms.

Feasibility of hospital-based use of peer ratings to evaluate the performances of practicing physicians.

PURPOSE: To address the feasibility of obtaining reliable evaluations of individual physicians from peer ratings undertaken at diverse hospitals. METHOD: Eleven hospitals in diverse locations in the United States were recruited to participate. With the aid of the hospitals' medical directors, up to 40 board-certified internists with admitting privileges were recruited per hospital. Participating physicians provided demographic data about themselves and nominated physician-associates to do peer ratings. Between April 1993 and January 1994, the physicians were rated by their peers, who received a single mailing with no follow-up. The raters used a nine-point Likert scale for 11 cognitive and noncognitive categories. Administrative procedures were coordinated from the American Board of Internal Medicine. Chi-square, Student's t-test, and factor analysis using varimax rotation were used to analyze the results. RESULTS: Of the 4,139 questionnaires that were mailed to peer raters, 3,005 (73%) were returned. Of the 228 physicians who were rated, 187 received ten or more usable ratings, which were used for further analysis. The findings confirmed the results of previous research. The highest mean rating was for the category of integrity, and the lowest was for the category of psychosocial aspects of care. Ten to 11 responses per physician were necessary to achieve a generalizability coefficient of .7. Nearly 90% of the variance in the ratings was accounted for by two factors, one representing cognitive and clinical management skills and the other, humanistic qualities. For 16 physicians (9%), the ratngs of overall clinical skills were less than 7 on a scale from 1 (low) to 9 (high); their ratings for all individual cognitive and noncognitive categories were below the ratings of the other physicians. CONCLUSION: The peer raters' response rate and the analysis of the ratings suggest that the rating process is acceptable to physicians and that it is feasible to obtain reliable, multidimensional peer evaluations of individual physicians practicing in diverse clinical settings.

Patient report of HIV risk screening by primary care physicians.

Our objectives were to (1) assess primary care physicians' performance at screening patients for HIV risks using patient report; (2) compare patient recall concerning screening with physician report; and (3) compare HIV risk screening with general preventive health screening. Up to 20 patients from 126 physicians' practices anonymously completed 1,820 questionnaires. Questionnaires assessed screening from physicians about HIV risks and general preventive health care. Two scales were developed to measure comprehensiveness of screening. Based on patient recall, physicians performed poorly in HIV risk screening. On an HIV risk-screening scale, patients were screened concerning 11% of items assessed. In comparison, patients recalled screening concerning 75% of general prevention items assessed. Patients with acknowledged HIV risk factors and younger patients were screened more for HIV risk, but many patients with risks were still missed. Physicians' estimates of their screening were relatively concordant with patient report in general prevention areas but were discordant with patient recall of HIV risk screening; physicians estimated considerably more screening than their patients recalled. Female physicians performed better than male physicians in both HIV risk screening and general preventive health screening; physicians with more HIV experience performed better at HIV risk screening. HIV risk screening in the primary care setting remains inadequate. Comparable attention to that given to general prevention by primary care physicians is needed in screening patients for HIV risk behaviors.

Ability of primary care physicians to recognize physical findings associated with HIV infection.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the ability of primary care physicians to identify physical findings associated with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. DESIGN: Standardized patient examination. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 134 general internists and family practitioners were randomly selected after stratifying by year of medical school graduation, specialty, and experience caring for patients with HIV infection. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Recognition of physical findings of Kaposi's sarcoma, oral hairy leukoplakia, and diffuse lymphadenopathy. RESULTS: Despite being directed by presenting histories to sites of prominent physical abnormalities, only 23 (25.8%) of 89 physicians evaluating a patient with Kaposi's sarcoma and 22 (22.7%) of 97 physicians evaluating a patient with oral hairy leukoplakia detected and correctly diagnosed the abnormalities. Twenty-three (17%) of 133 physicians detected diffuse lymphadenopathy in a patient complaining of fatigue, fever, and arthralgias. Physicians with the most experience treating patients with HIV infection more frequently identified oral hairy leukoplakia, but HIV experience did not influence identification of Kaposi's sarcoma or detection of lymphadenopathy. There were no differences between general internists and family practitioners or among physicians by year of medical school graduation in identifying the three physical findings associated with HIV infection. CONCLUSIONS: Primary care physicians may frequently miss important physical findings related to HIV infection during patient examinations.

Do primary care physicians screen patients about alcohol intake using the CAGE questions?

The performances of 134 primary care physicians at initial screening about alcohol use and screening with the CAGE questions were assessed using 17 standardized patients. For three-fourths of the standardized patients, more than 50% of the physicians asked an initial alcohol screening question. However, use of the CAGE questions with six patients who reported drinking more than one drink per day was less consistent; for most of these patients, few physicians asked any CAGE questions. Fewer than 50% of the physicians included alcohol abuse in the differential diagnosis for three of four patients who drank four or more drinks per day. Methods are needed to incorporate the CAGE questions into primary care practices in a more systematic manner.

Physicians' ability to provide initial primary care to an HIV-infected patient.

BACKGROUND: Primary care physicians are providing care for an increasing number of persons infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). This study assesses the ability of primary care physicians to provide initial care for a patient with recently diagnosed HIV infection. METHODS: A standardized patient (SP) was trained to portray an asymptomatic person with HIV infection seeking a primary care physician. Physicians took a medical history and counseled the SP; their performances were assessed by the SP and through a brief written examination. In addition, physicians distributed questionnaires to HIV-infected patients in their practices to assess actual performance. The study participants consisted of 121 primary care physicians. RESULTS: A minority of physicians recommended standard primary care screening tests and vaccinations, including viral hepatitis screening (35%), syphilis serologic testing (32%), and pneumococcal vaccination (23%). While most physicians (87%) indicated they would obtain CD4 cell counts, only 50% indicated they would start appropriate Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia prophylaxis. Although this patient presented documentation of a positive tuberculin skin test and no prior therapy for tuberculosis, only 53% of the physicians recommended prophylactic isoniazid. While 75% of the physicians asked this SP about condom use, number of sexual partners, or contact with previous sexual partners. Physicians with the most HIV experience were more likely to recommended P carinii pneumonia prophylaxis, coinfection screening, pneumococcal vaccination, and isoniazid prophylactic therapy. However, physicians' HIV experience was not associated with assessing this SP's risk of infecting others or with counseling regarding condom use. Questionnaires distributed to HIV-infected patients of these physicians generally confirmed these findings. CONCLUSIONS: Basic HIV preventive and primary care may not be adequately performed by many primary care physicians. Physicians' HIV experience was associated with better performance of HIV primary care tasks, but not with screening and counseling concerning the spread of HIV infection.

Ability of primary care physicians to diagnose and manage Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia.

This study assesses the ability of primary care physicians to diagnose and manage Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) in a standardized patient (SP) with unidentified HIV infection. One hundred thirty-four primary care physicians from five Northwest states saw an SP with unidentified HIV infection who presented with symptoms, chest radiograph, and arterial blood gas results classic for PCP. Seventy-seven percent of the physicians included PCP in their differential diagnoses and 71% identified the SP's HIV risk. However, only a minority of the physicians indicated that they would initiate an appropriate diagnostic evaluation or appropriate therapy: 47% ordered a diagnostic test for PCP, 31% initiated an antibiotic appropriate for PCP, and 12% initiated an adequate dose of trimethoprim - sulfamethoxazole. Only 6% of the physicians initiated adjunctive prednisone therapy, even though prednisone was indicated because of the blood gas result. These findings suggest significant delay in diagnosis and treatment had these physicians been treating an actual patient with PCP.

Ratings of the performances of practicing internists by hospital-based registered nurses.

PURPOSE: To examine the feasibility and reliability of ratings completed by hospital-based registered nurses of the humanistic qualities, communication skills, and selected aspects of the clinical skills of practicing internists. METHOD: In 1988-1989, registered nurses who worked in the same 175 hospitals as 232 internists with admitting privileges at these hospitals rated the internists' performances. The nurses were selected from medicine floors, specialty floors, and intensive care units and/or critical care units, using lists provided by head nurses. A total of 1,877 rating questionnaires with 13 performance categories were collected (with a mean of 8.01 nurses per internist). The ratings were analyzed to determine measurement characteristics and the relationships of the nurses' demographic characteristics to the ratings. In addition, for each of ten performance categories for 152 of the internists, the average rating each internist received from nurses was compared with the average rating each internist received from peer physicians. Statistical analysis used Pearson correlations, canonical correlations, factor analyses, Student's t-tests, analysis of variance, and stepwise multiple regression. Finally, the internists themselves, including physicians who were not actually rated by the nurses, were asked to complete a brief questionnaire that included questions about their opinions of the use of nurses' ratings. RESULTS: The nurses' ratings correlated moderately strongly with the peer physicians' ratings and had a common structure. However, the nurses' ratings were lower for several humanistic qualities, including respect, integrity, and responsibility, and their ratings were higher for medical knowledge and verbal communications. Across the 13 performance categories, approximately 10-15 ratings from nurses were needed to obtain a reliable assessment of an internist's humanistic qualities and communication skills. Many internists felt that nurses' ratings should be used equally with, or at least as a lesser contribution to, ratings by peer physicians of humanistic qualities and communication skills. CONCLUSION: Nurses' ratings appear to provide a feasible and reliable method of evaluating the internists' communication skills and humanistic qualities, when used in conjunction with ratings by peer physicians.

Use of peer ratings to evaluate physician performance.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the feasibility and measurement characteristics of ratings completed by professional associates to evaluate the performance of practicing physicians. DESIGN: The clinical performance of physicians was evaluated using written questionnaires mailed to professional associates (physicians and nurses). Physician-associates were randomly selected from lists provided by both the subjects and medical supervisors, and detailed information was collected concerning the professional and social relationships between the associate and the subject. Responses were analyzed to determine factors that affect ratings and measurement characteristics of peer ratings. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Physician-subjects were selected from among practicing internists in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania who received American Board of Internal Medicine certification 5 to 15 years previously. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Physician performance as assessed by peers. RESULTS: Peer ratings are not biased substantially by the method of selection of the peers or the relationship between the rater and the subject. Factor analyses suggest a two-dimensional conceptualization of clinical skills: one factor represents cognitive and clinical management skills and the other factor represents humanistic qualities and management of psychosocial aspects of illness. Ratings from 11 peer physicians are needed to provide a reliable assessment in these two areas. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that it is feasible to obtain assessments from professional associates of practicing physicians in areas such as clinical skills, humanistic qualities, and communication skills. Using a shorter version of the questionnaire used in this study, peer ratings provide a practical method to assess clinical performance in areas such as humanistic qualities and communication skills that are difficult to assess with other measures.

Patterns of primary care of patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus.

To determine the patterns of care of patients infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), data from 2 sources were analyzed. Initial data obtained from the Washington State HIV/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) Epidemiology Unit indicate that 46% of patients with class IV AIDS were seen by physicians who reported fewer than 5 patients with AIDS, and 68% of all Washington physicians who reported treating patients with AIDS have reported only 1 patient. Subsequent data obtained from a questionnaire distributed in 4 Northwest states suggest that 74% of primary care internists and 73% of family practitioners have some experience in caring for patients with HIV infection, but most of these physicians report fewer than 6 patients in the past 2 years. Although most providers seeing large numbers of HIV-infected patients in their practices were based in the region's major metropolitan area, 59% of the internists and 55% of the family practitioners surveyed outside of the metropolitan area had seen at least 1 HIV-infected patient in their practices. These results suggest that primary care physicians with relatively little experience treating HIV infection are providing care for a large number of HIV-infected persons. Further study is needed to determine the extent and quality of care provided.

Changes over time in the knowledge base of practicing internists.

OBJECTIVE: To determine factors affecting the knowledge base of practicing internists. DESIGN: An 82-item multiple-choice examination with questions from the 1988 American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) certifying examination was used to assess the knowledge base of 289 internists. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Participants were selected from among practicing internists in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania who had received ABIM certification 5 to 15 years previously. RESULTS: significant inverse correlation (r = -.30) was found between examination scores and the number of years elapsed since certification. Knowledge declined sharply within 15 years of certification. In addition, procedure-oriented subspecialists (cardiologists and gastroenterologists) had lower scores than other internists in this examination of general medical knowledge. Multivariate analyses showed that independent variables that predicted test performance were initial ABIM certifying examination score, time elapsed since certification, subspecialty classification, medical school type, and residency type. CONCLUSIONS: These results support the recent decision for time-limited certification of internists and raise questions related to content and standard setting for recertification examinations.

Characteristics of ratings of physician competence by professional associates.

Although the evaluation of medical students and residents frequently includes the use of global ratings scales as measures of clinical competence, few studies have investigated the use of global ratings in evaluating the performance of practicing physicians, or the psychometric properties of these ratings. In this article, the characteristics of ratings of physician competence by professional associates are described, using practicing internists as the subjects for the study. Ratings of nine aspects of clinical competence for 210 internists were obtained from four physician associates with whom patient care had been shared. The results suggest that ratings of physicians' clinical competence by professional associates are both reliable and potentially useful in identifying physicians with low performance. Studies are needed to clarify further the psychometric properties of peer ratings, and to determine factors that affect these ratings.