High value care education in general surgery residency programs: A multi-institutional needs assessment

Background: The ACGME mandates that residency programs provide training related to high value care (HVC). The purpose of this study was to explore HVC education in general surgery residency programs. Methods: An electronic survey was distributed to general surgery residents in geographically diverse programs. Results: The response rate was 29% (181/619). Residents reported various HVC components in their curricula. Less than half felt HVC is very important for their future practice (44%) and only 15% felt confident they could lead a QI initiative in practice. Only 20% of residents reported participating in a root cause analysis and less than one-third of residents (30%) were frequently exposed to cost considerations. Conclusion: Few residents feel prepared to lead quality improvement initiatives, have participated in patient safety processes, or are aware of patients' costs of care. This underscores the need for improved scope and quality of HVC education and establishment of formal curricula. (C) 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

The study found that few general surgery residents feel that high value care is very important for their future practice, and only a small percentage of residents believe they have the ability to lead quality improvement initiatives. In addition, a minority of residents have participated in root cause analysis, and exposure to cost considerations is limited.