Informing the Design of a New Pragmatic Registry to Stimulate Near Miss Reporting in Ambulatory Care.

Objective: Ambulatory care safety is of emerging concern, especially in light of recent studies related to diagnostic errors and health information technology-related safety. Safety reporting systems in outpatient care must address the top safety concerns and be practical and simple to use. A registry that can identify common near misses in ambulatory care can be useful to facilitate safety improvements.

Rotation in a Smoking Cessation Clinic Improves Nicotine Dependence Treatment Provided by First-Year Internal Medicine Trainees.

Background And Objectives: Over 70% of smokers visit a physician annually, and physicians are well-positioned to assist patients in smoking cessation. Residency offers the ideal setting to train physicians in best practices for treatment of nicotine dependence. We hypothesized that experiential learning during a smoking cessation medical clinic (SCMC) rotation would be associated with an improvement in smoking cessation practice of internal medicine (IM) interns in outpatient primary care and inpatient settings.

A National Survey to Evaluate Graduate Medical Education in Disparities and Limited English Proficiency: A Report From the AAIM Diversity and Inclusion Committee.

Objectives: This article presents the results of a national survey addressing issues related to patients with limited English proficiency.

Methods: We disseminated a national confidential survey to 391 program directors of Internal Medicine residency programs accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education.

Results: Seventy percent of program directors indicated that their residents cared for a patient population that was composed of more than 10% limited-English-proficiency patients.

Patient satisfaction and resident postgraduate year status.

Purpose: Patient satisfaction has been recognized as an important variable affecting healthcare behavior. However, there are limited data on the relationship between doctor post-graduate year (PGY) status and patient satisfaction with provider interpersonal skills and humanistic qualities. The authors aims to assess this relationship using an American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) questionnaire.

Internal medicine residents' perspectives on effects of 2011 ACGME work hour regulations on patient care.

Background: The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) introduced new work hour limitations in July 2011.

Purposes: The aim is to assess internal medicine residents' perspectives on the impact of these limitations on their ability to discharge patient care duties.

Methods: An anonymous survey was administered to 158 medicine residents in an urban university-affiliated internal medicine residency program.

The role that graduate medical education must play in ensuring health equity and eliminating health care disparities.

Despite the 2002 Institute of Medicine report that described the moral and financial impact of health care disparities and the need to address them, it is evident that health care disparities persist. Recommendations for addressing disparities include collecting and reporting data on patient race and ethnicity, supporting language interpretation services, increasing awareness of health care disparities through education, requiring cultural competency training for all health care professionals, and increasing diversity among those delivering health care. The Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education places strong emphasis on graduate medical education's role in eliminating health care disparities by asking medical educators to objectively evaluate and report on their trainees' ability to practice patient-centered, culturally competent care.

A novel concept in residency education: case-based remediation.

Background: Resident remediation is required for all residents who do not meet minimum standards in one or more of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education core competencies. The Council of Residency Directors in Emergency Medicine Remediation Taskforce identified the need for case-based examples of remediation efforts.

Objectives: 1) To describe a complicated resident remediation case and employ consensus panel evaluation of the process.