Practice-based preceptoral residency training in family practice

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Family Medicine Training
• Continuity of Care

Background:

• Accreditation requirements have standardized US family practice continuity training.
• This study introduces an experiment in practice-based preceptoral continuity training.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the impact of assigning residents to private faculty practices for continuity training.
• To compare practice demographics, clinical content, training costs, and resident satisfaction.

Main Methods:

• Residents were assigned to private faculty practices for second- and third-year training.
• Data analysis involved comparisons of practice demographics, clinical content, training costs, and resident assessments.

Main Results:

• Preceptoral practices better matched community demographics than established residency practices.
• Fewer visits for hypertension and diabetes mellitus were noted in preceptoral practices.
• Training at preceptoral sites yielded a positive financial differential of $69,300 per resident annually.
• Residents reported high satisfaction with training quality.

Conclusions:

• Practice-based preceptoral continuity training appears feasible regarding clinical exposure and offers significant financial advantages.
• Key questions remain regarding the quality of teaching and supervision within this training model.