A multidisciplinary approach for teaching systems-based practice to internal medicine residents

Rapid growth in the complexity of the health care environment (including monitoring systems for health care quality and patient safety) may result in graduating internists not being adequately prepared for the demands the system places on them. In response, the Residency Review Committee for Internal Medicine created the Educational Innovations Project (EIP) to encourage select residency training programs to develop new strategies and methods to meet changing demands in graduate medical education.

As part of the EIP, our program created an innovative administrative internship. This multiyear curriculum provides systems-based practice training and consists of a series of rotations that take place during the 3 years of internal medicine residency. Each session involves close interaction with the nonphysician personnel who are instrumental in making our institution a functional and cohesive unit. To assess the potential impact of the rotations, we survey senior residents, recent graduates, and faculty educators. In conjunction with the Performance and Patient Experience departments of the hospital, we track several systems-based practice metrics for residents, including compliance with core health care measures, length of stay, and patient satisfaction.

Residents recognize the need to develop systems-based practice skills, to readily participate in structured curricula designed to enhance such skills, and to provide leadership in organizing and publishing quality improvement initiatives, and upon graduation, they may lament that they did not receive even more vigorous training in these areas.

Although internal medicine residencies continue to improve their training in systems-based practice, our experience suggests that an even greater emphasis on these skills may be warranted.