Improving Fellow Continuity Clinic With Multiple Subspecialties: A Quality Improvement Initiative

Continuity clinic is a critical component of graduate medical training, yet challenges in the clinic setting may disrupt learning opportunities. In the pediatric hematology/oncology fellowship at our institution, fellows see patients in five separate subspecialty clinics during a day of weekly continuity clinic. Feedback from fellows and faculty indicated that clinic structure and workflows negatively impacted the fellow educational experience and overall satisfaction. The aim of this initiative was to increase fellow satisfaction with education and workflow in the continuity clinic from baseline scores of 2.3 and 1.8, respectively (scale from 1 "very dissatisfied," to 5 "very satisfied") to a goal of 3.5.

A multidisciplinary team of stakeholders was formed. A baseline survey to assess fellow satisfaction was completed in June 2022, then repeated regularly during an intervention period (July 2022 to June 2023) and a follow-up period (July 2023 to December 2023). A separate survey assessed the satisfaction of faculty and clinic staff as a balancing measure. Five key interventions (clinical mentor, clinical team roles, patient visits per day, schedule template, patient panel) were implemented and refined through iterative plan-do-study-act cycles using the Model for Improvement.

Fellow satisfaction increased significantly for both measures, with sustained centerline (median) shift from baseline of 2.3 to 4.1 for the educational experience, and from baseline of 1.8 to 3.5 for the clinic workflow. There was no significant decrease in faculty or staff satisfaction on any survey measure during the study.

Multidisciplinary interventions led to sustained improvement in the educational experience and workflow of fellows in a subspecialty continuity clinic.