Impact of faculty-specific electronic reminders on faculty compliance with daily resident evaluations: a retrospective study

Study Objective: To assess the effectiveness of faculty-specific electronic reminders on increasing faculty compliance with completing daily anesthesia resident evaluations. Design: Retrospective study. Setting: Anesthesiology Residency Program at Oregon Health & Science University. Measurements: 41 faculty members on staff from February 2004 through January 2006 were studied for compliance with submitting daily anesthesia resident evaluations 12 months before and 12 months after implementation of a faculty-specific electronic reminder system. Evaluations were entered into a customized, web-based Daily Resident Evaluation database. Data for the reminders were obtained from the Surgical Schedule database. At the end of the study period, data on compliance with our daily resident evaluation system was aggregated by month and compared before versus after system implementation. Main Results: A total of 1,222 of 3,893 possible evaluations (31.4%) were submitted before the faculty-specific electronic reminder system was in place, with 38 faculty submitting at least one evaluation (93% participation). After the intervention, 1,824 of 4,263 possible evaluations (42.8%) were submitted, with all 41 faculty submitting at least one evaluation (100% participation). The percentage of resident evaluations submitted by the faculty increased from 29.3% to 42.9% (P < 0.0001) after introducing the faculty-specific reminders. Faculty in the lowest quartile of compliance prior to the intervention showed the largest improvement (446% increase). Conclusions: A faculty-specific electronic reminder system improved faculty compliance with submitting resident evaluations. The faculty members with the lowest compliance prior to implementation of this system benefited the most. (C) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.