Combining Clinical Microsystems and an Experiential Quality Improvement Curriculum to Improve Residency Education in Internal Medicine

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center's internal medicine residency program was admitted to the new Education Innovation Project accreditation pathway of the Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education to begin in July 2006. The authors restructured the inpatient medical service to create clinical microsystems in which residents practice throughout residency. Program leadership then mandated an active curriculum in quality improvement based in those microsystems. To provide the experience to every graduating resident, a core faculty in patient safety was trained in the basics of quality improvement. The authors hypothesized that such changes would increase the number of residents participating in quality improvement projects, improve house officer engagement in quality improvement work, enhance the culture of safety the residents perceive in their training environment, improve work flow on the general medicine ward rotations, and improve the overall educational experience for the residents on ward rotations. The authors describe the first 18 months of the intervention (July 2006 to January 2008). The authors assessed attitudes and the educational experience with surveys and evaluation forms. After the intervention, the authors documented residents' participation in projects that overlapped with hospital priorities. More residents reported roles in designing and implementing quality improvement changes. Residents also noted greater satisfaction with the quality of care they deliver. Fewer residents agreed or strongly agreed that the new admitting system interfered with communication. Ongoing residency program assessment showed an improved perception of workload, and educational ratings of rotations improved. The changes required few resources and can be transported to other settings.