Measuring Greater Patient-Provider Continuity in a Clinic-First Family Medicine Residency Curriculum

Continuity is valued by patients, clinicians, and health systems for its association with higher-value care and satisfaction. Continuity is a commonly cited reason for entering primary care; however, it is difficult to achieve in residency settings. We sought to determine the effect of transitioning from a traditional "block" (13 4-week rotations per year) to a "clinic-first" (priority on outpatient continuity) curriculum on measures of continuity in our family medicine residency.

For the 3 years prior to and the 4 years following the transition from block to clinic-first curriculum (July 2011-June 2018, n = 51 block resident-years and n = 72 clinic-first resident-years), we measured resident panel size, clinic time, office visits, and both resident- and patient-sided continuity measures. We also defined a new longitudinal continuity measure, "familiar faces," which is the number of patients that a resident saw at least 3 times during residency.

The transition from block to clinic-first curriculum increased panel size, clinic time for first- and second-year residents, overall total visits, and total number of clinic visits with paneled patients. Continuity measures demonstrated an increased resident-sided continuity at all training levels, an increase (first-year residents) or unchanged (second- and third-year residents) continuity from the patient perspective, and a near doubling of longitudinal continuity.

Redesigning our family medicine residency curriculum from a traditional block schedule to a clinic-first curriculum improved our residents' continuity experience.