Outpatient Practice

The ambulatory clinic experience based at Providence Medical Group-Northeast plays a central role in our residents’ educational and clinical experiences. The clinic is a combined faculty and resident practice. Both the faculty and the residents have their own individual patient panels for which they have primary responsibility. We are certified as a tier 3 patient-centered medical home. As we originally formed as a mission clinic for the Providence system, our patient population is a fascinating mix of diverse ethnic and social backgrounds. Here are some highlights:

• As a patient-centered medical home, we embrace the multi-disciplinary team. Our resources include a behavioral psychologist, clinical pharmacist, social work case manager, nurse case manager, clinic nurses, dietitian and physical therapist.
• Residents work on a clinic team including general medicine faculty, medical assistants and clinical care coordinators to care for their patients. Residents enjoy working closely with clinic staff and feel that it trains them well for future practice in how to optimize their relationship with their support staff to best care for patients.
• We strive to provide continuity and quality care with our team approach. Team members learn to cover for each other as a group practice. Residents learn skills in cross-coverage and interpersonal communication.
• Some residents opt to do a “shared practice” or “collaborative continuity” experience with a faculty member. In this model, residents are paired with a community physician mentor and are provided with one-on-one mentoring. The residents sees patients alongside their shared practice mentor. This has been a valuable and popular experience for the residents. Residents feel that this balances well with their own continuity experience.
• Ambulatory clinic takes place during 2 week Integrated Blocks, with 8-9 half-days of clinic over a 2 week period. The more concentrated clinic experience allows residents to immerse in the ambulatory learning environment.
• Residents meet with the multidisciplinary team during Integrated blocks to discuss complex patients from their panel and develop team care plans to optimize care.
• Disease registries have been incorporated into the electronic medical record and assist residents in learning panel management skills. Time is incorporated into the curriculum for faculty-led sessions on population health/panel management. There is a disease management support team that helps with reminders and calls to patients when they are due for an evidence-based service.
• All interns experience the Introduction to Outpatient Medicine rotation near the beginning of internship. This rotation is essentially an outpatient boot camp which allows interns to learn rapidly about the outpatient setting and creates an optimal continuity clinic experience.