Continuity and Health Outcomes in Resident Clinics: A Scoping Review of the Literature

Continuity of care is an essential component of primary care, resulting in improved satisfaction, management of chronic conditions, and adherence to screening recommendations. The impact of continuity of care in teaching practices remains unclear. We performed a scoping review of the literature to understand the impact of continuity on patients and trainees in teaching practices. A systematic search was performed through PubMed to identify articles published prior to January 2020 addressing continuity of care and health outcomes in resident primary care clinic settings. A total of 543 abstracts were evaluated by paired independent reviewers. In total, 24 articles met the inclusion criteria and were abstracted by four authors. These articles included a total of 6,973 residents (median = 96, range = 9-5,000) and over 1,000,000 patients (median = 428, range = 70-1,000,000). Most publications demonstrated that higher continuity was associated with better diabetic care (71%, n = five of seven), receipt of preventive care per guidelines (60%, n = three of five), and lower costs or administrative burden of care (100%, n = three of three). A smaller proportion of publications reported a positive association between continuity and hypertension control (28%, n = two of seven). The majority of publications evaluating patient/resident satisfaction demonstrated that better continuity was associated with higher patient (67%, n = four of six) and resident (67%, n = six of nine) satisfaction. A review of the existing literature revealed that higher continuity of care in resident primary care clinics was associated with better patient health outcomes and patient/resident satisfaction. Interventions to improve continuity in training settings are needed.