Is the Wake Forest family medicine residency program strictly a university-based training experience? |
The short answer is no. We are more accurately described as a hybrid program, bridging both university and community settings. With the decision in 1992 to move to a nearby, but off-campus location, we positioned ourselves to achieve the “best of both worlds.” The first year training experience is heavily weighted to intensive hospital and more university-based training, while the second and third years are primarily community and office-based with a liberal dose of elective time. The move off-campus has made the Family Practice Center a much more approachable, community-oriented primary care resource.
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What is the department's commitment to information technology advancement and the electronic medical record?
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The university is in the active phase of implementing a campus-wide hospital and outpatient electronic medical record system which is now present in the majority of departments, including Family Medicine. The Logician EMR has been fully operational in our area since January of 2004, but its functionality continues to be expanded, e.g. by creating new templates for common symptom and diagnostic presentations.
Hospital and outpatient records can be accessed remotely via virtual private network (VPN) and a web portal utilizing Citrix Client software, supplementing the health care information retrieval process. Multiple PCs and system terminals are available throughout the clinical, administrative, and residency areas for house officer use. PowerPoint presentations along with Smart Board touch screen technology and two large plasma screens are available to support educational programs and faculty/resident presentations. |
How are residents evaluated?
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Standardized evaluation tools are utilized for departmental and off- campus rotations and are performed by faculty supervising those experiences. Residents, each fall, complete the AAFP family practice in- service examination for which we consistently perform in the upper quartiles. The assigned faculty advisors review with each resident their individual progress, and over see self-directed components of the practice management curriculum, at least on a quarterly basis. Faculty clinic precepting feedback is included in the residents file on a regular basis and copies are forwarded to the residents for review and discussion. The full faculty meets quarterly to review resident progress and provide feedback on areas of strength and weakness. A summary of this review is provided to each resident.
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What does the residency curriculum offer in the ever changing arena of practice management (PM)?
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Our PM curriculum has undergone enormous change during the past year. The innovations have been made possible through the auspices of a recent Residency Training Grant, which has enabled us to revamp the entire three year longitudinal curriculum, and establish a multi-faceted and diverse educational experience weaving through a number of rotations and resident conference series. In addition, we have been able to establish a close working relationship with a local private practice management firm who is actively involved in teaching in the program as well as advising us on curricular enhancements.
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What is the status of relations with other university departments?
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The Family and Community Medicine Department has been in existence for 24 years at Wake Forest University School of Medicine and had evolved side-by-side with those specialty areas in a young medical center which has grown exponentially in the last two decades. In view of this combined history, there has been a healthy and collaborative atmosphere that has developed between the primary care fields and the other specialty areas that extends from clinical research to medical student and residency training. In the last several years, both the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Psychiatry has approached us to ask for assistance in providing training experiences for their residents in the ambulatory practice of medicine.
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