Archive for: Residency Program Alert
Listen up: Using podcasts in GME
While I was surfing the Web looking for the latest and greatest in GME, I came across the University of California San Francisco’s podcast library and thought it was a cool idea.
Podcasts are audio files uploaded to the Internet, which listeners can download and listen to on their computers or MP3 players, such as iPods.
UCSF’ posts grand round and orientation presentations to the library so residents and fellows can catch them if they were unable to attend the lecture or refer to them for a refresher on the topic, says Bobby Baron, MD, DIO at UCSF.
This is a great, inexpensive, effective way to convey important information to residents who may otherwise miss the lectures due to scheduling and duty hour limits. And, as I wrote about in an issue of Residency Program Alert, programs can also use podcasts as a recruitment tool.
Additionally, it gives institutions a permanent archive of the presentations, Baron says.
However, it’s important to note that Baron says residents who miss orientation have to go through a more formal process than simply just listening to the podcast presentations, including passing a post-test on all of the information presented.
I did a quick search to see if other residency programs are using Podcasts, and they are. Check them out (Note: You may need iTunes or other audio software installed on your computer in order to listen to the files):
University of Arizona College of Medicine Department of Pediatrics Pedcast
University of Tennessee Health Science Center Internal Medicine Residency Program Podcasts
University of Michigan Department of Family Medicine Podcast on why a resident chose the program
Southern Regional Area Health Education Center in North Carolina’s RadioAHEC
Johns Hopkins University Radiology
Does your program or institution use podcasts or video in any creative ways? If so, tell us about it in the comment box below-feel free to include links, too!
Ensure residents provide cost-effective care in a tough economy
These days, everyone has an eye on the bottom line, including patients. Perhaps you or your residents have noticed more patients asking how much certain medication or procedures cost before deciding on a treatment. Or, maybe you’ve seen an increase in uninsured patients come through the hospital’s door.
Providing cost effective care, a component of the systems-based practice competency, is more important to patients today than ever before. Although program directors and attending physicians most likely convey to residents how to make the best, most budget conscious choices for their patients, how do you know they’ve caught on and are doing it themselves?
Tips for preventing the flu
For those of you who visited Residency Manager Blog on Tuesday after receiving our free e-newsletter, may have noticed things hadn’t really been updated in awhile. It’s because I was out with the flu.
Yes, my boyfriend and I spent a very romantic Valentines Day sitting in the doctor’s office waiting for confirmation that I had the dreaded influenza. I had never had the flu before, and I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy– it was awful!
To keep you healthy for the rest of this flu season, consider the following tips:
- The CDC suggests that you avoid touching your eyes, nose, or mouth as much as possible. You may get sick if you touch something contaminated with the flu virus and then touch your face.
- Hand sanitizers can kill the virus, according to the CDC. If someone close to you is sick, keep hand sanitizer near by. After putting the gel on your hands, rub them together until they are dry. Also use sanitizer after you cough or sneeze.
- Drink plenty of liquids that hydrate you, the CDC recommends. Drinks such as coffee and soda are not ideal because they are the best hydraters. Also watch out for beverages high in sugar, like sports drinks. Water is your best bet.
- WebMD suggests wiping your work area down with disinfectant wipes. Clean your desk, where you typically touch drawers or file cabinets, and carefully wipe down your keyboard and phone.
What do you do to avoid getting the flu and colds?
A man and a dog walk into a bar. . .
Yesterday, I spoke to a emergency medicine program director James Turner, DO, who used a joke to sum up exactly why training programs need to look at the numbers behind residents’ performance and outcomes data.
Here’s the joke:
A man and his dog walk into a bar. The bartender looks over and says, “Sir, you can’t bring your dog in here.”
And the man replies, “But this dog is a special dog! I taught him to talk.”
The bartender, very impressed, tells the man to sit down at the bar with his dog and tries to strike up a conversation with the gifted pooch. After five minutes, the dog still has not made a sound, and the bartender looks up at the man and says, “There’s no way this dog can talk.”
To which the man replies, “I never said he could talk; I just said I taught him how to.”
Without analyzing residents’ evaluations and compiling performance data reports, how are programs supposed to know if what they’re teaching is working. . . if residents are actually learning?
All too often, we look at evaluations as an indicator of how a specific resident is doing in a specific function or skill. Residency program leadership should also remember to look at them as an indicator of how their teaching efforts are being received.
Look out for an article in April’s Residency Program Alert featuring Dr. Turner talking about assessment measures his program uses to evaluate residents’ skill level during orientation.
How often does your program look at residents’ performance across the board? Who compiles and analyzes the data and is responsible for leading change?
Soundbooth Friday: A tool for GME offices to provide program oversight
In the February issue of Residency Program Alert, I wrote an article about the coordinator’s role in creating, distributing, and collecting the annual program evaluations residents complete per ACGME requirements.
As I researched the topic, I discovered that many GME offices use their programs’ annual program evaluations as a yearly check up. I came across a great annual program evaluation checklist created by the GME office at Albert Einstein School of Medicine. I gave GME administrator Linda Collazzi a call and asked her about their tool.
With 73 programs to monitor, Collazzi said they needed an easy way to get a peek at what’s happening in each program every year. They decided to use information taken from each program’s annual program evaluation. But, because annual program evaluations can be lengthy, Collazzi and her DIO created their checklist for program directors to fill out using information from their annual review. This saves countless trees, and gives Collazzi’s office the information it needs to ensure their programs are complying with all ACGME regulations.
If you’re interested in checking out the form, you can download it from our Forms and Documents page.
Listen what Collazzi has to say about how they developed the form and follow up with program directors when the checklist reveals there are problems.
Soundbooth Friday: Get residents feedback about the program
Over the last several months, Residency Program Alert has included a series describing how to combat the nine red flags in the accreditation process outlined in the February 2008 ACGME e-bulletin. The article in February’s issue of RPA covers the concern the ACGME identified as, “lack of program leadership.”
Quick tips for handling verification requests
CMS and The Joint Commission have put credentialing regulations in place that require medical staff offices to obtain documentation showing that physicians are trained and qualified to perform the clinical privileges they request, as reported in the January issue of Residency Program Alert (RPA). That means the number of verification requests residency programs receive is not going to dwindle anytime soon, according to Kathy Matzka, CPMSM, CPCS.
In the RPA article, I covered the dos and don’ts of completing verification requests for residents whom the program director trained and directly evaluated. However, residency program managers also receive verification requests for physicians who graduated before the program director or coordinator joined the organization. Here are two tips on how to handle verification forms for those individuals:
- Be transparent. If the person filling out the verification form is basing their comments upon the review of a file-rather than personal knowledge of the skills, training, or experience of the applicant-note that on the form, says Matzka. Simply write the phrase, “Based upon review of the file. . . ” before any comments you give, suggests Matzka.
- Modify templates. If you use your own verification form in lieu of the one hospitals or credentialing verification organizations send, develop a separate template to use for physicians who did not train under the program director, says Penny Potvin, neurology coordinator at Fletcher Allen Healthcare in Burlington, VT. Make sure your verification form clearly states that the information given is based on a review of the file, not personal experience. Once the program director completes the verification form on these individuals, Potvin puts a copy in the physicians’ folder. That way, if more requests come in, they have the form already filled out.
What to do if residents do not report their scholarly activities
The ACGME requires programs to have evidence of residents’ scholarly activities and research. Keeping tabs on residents’ projects can be a bear of a task for coordinators.
It’s a small world after all: Teaching residents cultural competency
Cultural competency training is an important aspect to include in your residency training. Not only is it relevant to the professionalism, interpersonal communication, and patient care competencies, teaching residents how culture can affect the patient-physician relationship helps them improve overall patient satisfaction.
Encourage consistent and accurate reporting by faculty on evaluations
At HCPro’s 3rd Annual Residency Program Management Workshop in Chicago, many program directors and coordinators lamented over the troubles they have getting faculty to report poor performance on resident evaluations. The October and November issues of Residency Program Alert included articles explaining what prevents faculty from completing accurate evaluations and tips on how to help faculty become better evaluators.
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