Year-End Clinic Handoffs: A National Survey of Academic Internal Medicine Programs. Academic Article uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • BACKGROUND: While there has been increasing emphasis and innovation nationwide in training residents in inpatient handoffs, very little is known about the practice and preparation for year-end clinic handoffs of residency outpatient continuity practices. Thus, the latter remains an identified, yet nationally unaddressed, patient safety concern. OBJECTIVES: The 2014 annual Association of Program Directors in Internal Medicine (APDIM) survey included seven items for assessing the current year-end clinic handoff practices of internal medicine residency programs throughout the country. DESIGN: Nationwide survey. PARTICIPANTS: All internal medicine program directors registered with APDIM. MAIN MEASURES: Descriptive statistics of programs and tools used to formulate a year-end handoff in the ambulatory setting, methods for evaluating the process, patient safety and quality measures incorporated within the process, and barriers to conducting year-end handoffs. KEY RESULTS: Of the 361 APDIM member programs, 214 (59%) completed the Transitions of Care Year-End Clinic Handoffs section of the survey. Only 34% of respondent programs reported having a year-end ambulatory handoff system, and 4% reported assessing residents for competency in this area. The top three barriers to developing a year-end handoff system were insufficient overlap between graduating and incoming residents, inability to schedule patients with new residents in advance, and time constraints for residents, attendings, and support staff. CONCLUSIONS: Most internal medicine programs do not have a year-end clinic handoff system in place. Greater attention to clinic handoffs and resident assessment of this care transition is needed.

publication date

  • February 14, 2017

Research

keywords

  • Internal Medicine
  • Internship and Residency
  • Patient Handoff

Identity

PubMed Central ID

  • PMC5442016

Scopus Document Identifier

  • 85012890384

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1016/j.annemergmed.2009.07.016

PubMed ID

  • 28197967

Additional Document Info

volume

  • 32

issue

  • 6