Using a resident discharge clinic for resident education and patient care: a feasibility study

Many patients in internal medicine resident continuity clinics experience difficulty accessing care, making posthospitalization ambulatory follow-up challenging. Experiential learning in care transitions is also lacking for residents.

We sought to assess the feasibility and impact of a weekly Resident Discharge Clinic (RDC) in increasing access to early posthospitalization follow-up and providing learning opportunities for residents.

We staffed the RDC with an ambulatory block resident, an internal medicine preceptor, and a clinical pharmacist. We assessed time to posthospitalization follow-up, readmission rates, and resident perceptions of postdischarge care for resident-clinic patients, comparing data before and after RDC implementation.

There were 636 discharges in the baseline group, 662 during the intervention period, and 56 in the RDC group. Six months after RDC implementation, the percentage of discharged resident-clinic patients with follow-up within 7 days improved from 6.6% at baseline to 9.7% (P  =  .04). The mean interval to the posthospitalization follow-up appointment in the RDC group was 7.4 days compared with 33.9 days in the baseline group (P < .001). The percentage of surveyed residents (n  =  72) who agreed that early follow-up was easy to arrange increased from 21% to 77% (P < .001). There was no significant decrease in the 30-day readmission rate for patients in the RDC group (18.1% versus 12.5%, P  =  .29).

The RDC was easily implemented, increased access to timely posthospitalization follow-up, and provided a platform for resident learning about care transitions.