Organized continuity panel reassignment.

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Primary Care Medicine
• Health Services Research

Background:

• Structured continuity clinical experience is a core requirement for primary care residency programs.
• Limited data exists on the routine use, ideal composition, management, and outcomes of continuity patient panels in residency training.

Purpose of the Study:

• To implement and evaluate an organized continuity panel reassignment process.
• To create balanced resident panels with equitable distribution of patients by demographics and health status.
• To enhance postgraduate year-1 (PGY-1) resident training through balanced panels and focused learning.

Main Methods:

• Designed a continuity panel reassignment process to achieve balanced resident panels.
• Balanced panels based on patient race/ethnicity, sex, age, diabetes prevalence, and healthcare utilization.
• Focused on PGY-1 panels to improve initial training experiences in practice-based learning and continuity of care.

Main Results:

• Achieved improved parity in patient care experiences due to more evenly distributed panels.
• Enhanced the PGY-1 curriculum through panel review and case management.
• PGY-1 residents demonstrated improved clinical experiences and diabetes quality indicators compared to previous cohorts.

Conclusions:

• Balanced continuity panels serve as a superior foundation for developing clinical curricula.
• Preliminary findings indicate that this approach contributes to enhanced quality indicators for patients with diabetes.