How we used a patient visit tracker tool to advance experiential learning in systems-based practice and quality improvement in a medical student clinic

Poorly designed healthcare systems increase costs and preventable medical errors. To address these issues, systems-based practice (SBP) education provides future physicians with the tools to identify systemic errors and implement quality improvement (QI) initiatives to enhance the delivery of cost-effective, safe and multi-disciplinary care. Although SBP education is being implemented in residency programs and is mandated by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) as one of its core competencies, it has largely not been integrated into undergraduate medical education. We propose that Medical Student-Faculty Collaborative Clinics (MSFCCs) may be the ideal environment in which to train medical students in SBPs and QI initiatives, as they allow students to play pivotal roles in project development, administration, and management. Here we describe a process of experiential learning that was developed within a newly established MSFCC, which challenged students to identify inefficiencies, implement interventions, and track the results. After identifying bottlenecks in clinic operations, our students designed a patient visit tracker tool to monitor clinic flow and implemented solutions to decrease patient visit times. Our model allowed students to drive their own active learning in a practical clinical setting, providing early and unique training in crucial QI skills.