The Impact of a Paracentesis Clinic on Internal Medicine Resident Procedural Competency

Competency in paracentesis is an important procedural skill for health care practitioners caring for patients with decompensated cirrhosis. It is estimated that 97,577 paracentesis procedures were performed between 2010 and 2012 across 120 academic medical centers and 290 affiliated hospitals.

Due to limitations of resources at the Central Texas Veterans Affairs Hospital, a paracentesis clinic was created to give patients improved access to this procedure which is staffed by a supervising physician and internal medicine residents. We evaluated resident competency via survey and change in the number of paracentesis procedures performed with the utilization of this clinic.

Thirty-three residents completed the survey. The total mean number of paracentesis sessions participated in was 4.8. It was found that during training, 79% met conditional independence in performing this procedure with a high level of comfort by rotating through this clinic. It was also found that the number of procedures performed by internal medicine residents significantly increased with the addition of this clinic.

A dedicated paracentesis clinic with internal medicine resident involvement can increase resident paracentesis procedural independence, the number of procedures available and performed, and procedural comfort level by the end of training.