Abstract
Objectives: To provide baseline data on resident continuity of care experience, to describe the effect of ambulatory centre surgery on continuity of care, to analyse continuity of care by level of resident training and to assess a resident-run preadmission clinic’s effect on continuity of care.
Design: Data were prospectively collected for 4 weeks. All patients who underwent a general surgical procedure were included if a resident was present at operation.
Setting: The Division of General Surgery, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ont.
Outcome measures: Preoperative, operative and inhospital postoperative involvement of each resident with each case was recorded.
Results: Residents assessed preoperatively (before entering the operating room) 52% of patients overall, 20% of patients at the ambulatory centre and 83% of patients who required emergency surgery. Of patients assessed by the chief resident, 94% were assessed preoperatively compared with 32% of patients assessed by other residents (p < 0.001). Of the admitted patients, 40% had complete resident continuity of care (preoperative, operative and postoperative). There was no statistical difference between this rate and that for emergency, chief-resident and non-chief-resident subgroups. Of the eligible patients, 58% were seen preoperatively by the resident on the preadmission clinic service compared with 54% on other services (p > 0.1).
Conclusions: This study serves as a reference for the continuity of care experience in Canadian surgical programs. Residents assessed only 52% of patients preoperatively, and only 40% of patients had complete continuity of care. Factors such as ambulatory surgery and junior level of training negatively affected continuity experience. Such factors must be taken into account in planning surgical education.
The importance of continuity of care in medical education has been well documented. Most of this literature focuses on primary care specialties.1–4 Benefits of continuity of care include resident education throughout all phases of care, improved patient compliance and decreased health care costs.5
The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada has included continuity of care in its specialty training requirements for General Surgery.6 A sense of responsibility for the overall care of the surgical patient is one objective. Furthermore, a senior or chief resident is required to be responsible for preoperative, operative and postoperative care. The Residency Review Committee for Surgery in the United States also requires adequate experience in continuity of are in a surgical residency.7
A review of the literature revealed no published data on resident continuity of care experiences in Canadian general surgery training programs. Two studies evaluating surgical residency and continuity of care were found: one was a retrospective review of random cases in a surgery program in the United States;8 the second was an evaluation of the mentor system on continuity of care in a US surgery program.9
Not only is there little available information on the continuity of care experience, but practice patterns are changing. Fewer patients are being admitted before elective surgery, and ambulatory surgery is now common. Large surgical services may have schedules that make resident attendance at outpatient clinics difficult. The effect of these realities on resident continuity of care needs to be studied.
The objectives of this study were fourfold: (1) to provide baseline data on resident continuity of care of surgical patients, (2) to describe the effect of ambulatory centre surgery on resident continuity of care experience, (3) to analyse continuity of care experience by level of resident training and (4) to see if a preadmission clinic run by residents improves the continuity of care experience.
Methods
The general surgery residency program at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont. was the setting for this study. The residency program is accredited by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. The Division of General Surgery consists of 11 faculty members who provide general surgical care at two facilities in Kingston. Kingston General Hospital (KGH) is the only inpatient institution in Kingston, and Hotel Dieu Hospital (HDH) is the ambulatory surgical centre. Every surgeon performs procedures at both hospitals. Residents are also involved with surgical cases at both institutions. Residents rotate on 1 of 3 inpatient services, each of which have 3 or 4 faculty. A resident is also assigned to the ambulatory centre.
The study was designed as a prospective 4-week investigation from Mar. 9 to Apr. 3, 1998. All patients who underwent a general surgical procedure at either KGH or HDH during this period were included in the study if a general surgery resident was present at the time of operation.
A 20-item data acquisition form was designed (by R.S.S.) and approved by the general surgery program director (G.R.W.). The information recorded included the following: demographic procedure-related data (date, patient name, hospital number, procedure, surgeon, hospital, elective versus emergency operation, and outpatient versus inpatient status); resident data (name and level of participation in the procedure [e.g., primary operator versus first assistant]); preoperative and intraoperative resident data (assessment of patient before the day of the procedure, on the day of the procedure or not at all, involvement in intraoperative decisions); and postoperative resident data (was postoperative care directed by the resident, was the patient seen daily by the resident postoperatively, were resident’s progress notes on the chart?).
Preoperative assessment was defined as resident participation in the decision to operate or resident confirmation of the diagnosis preoperatively (before the patient entered the operating room). All data were obtained and recorded by a single investigator (R.S.S.). A review of the completed data acquisition forms at the end of the study determined the continuity of care. The method of data acquisition was prospective and included a combination of observation and interview of residents involved and examination of residents’ notes in patient charts.
Data were analysed to obtain the total number of eligible patients and their admission type. The proportion of these patients who had preoperative and operative care by the same resident is reported. The proportion whose entire care including inhospital postoperative care was conducted by the same resident is also reported. Furthermore, similar analyses are reported for 4 different subgroups: ambulatory centre patients, patients requiring emergency surgery, patients assessed by the chief resident, and patients assessed preoperatively through the resident-only preadmission clinic. Data were analysed for statistical significance by the χ2 technique.
Results
Patients and residents
A total of 150 surgical procedures were included in this study. All general surgery procedures done at KGH met the inclusion criteria. Sixteen general surgery procedures done at the HDH did not meet the inclusion criteria either because no surgical resident was present at the time of the procedure or because a non-general surgery resident was present.
Seven general surgery residents were involved: 2 postgraduate year 5 (PGY-V) (chief residents), 3 PGY-IV, 1 PGY-III and 1 PGY-II. They made up all general surgery residents who were doing a general surgery rotation at that time. The only general surgery residents not included in this study were those who were not on a general surgery rotation (therefore not performing general surgery procedures) at the time of the study.
Resident involvement at the time of surgery included 120 operations as the primary operator, 24 operations as first assistant and 6 operations as second assistant.
The proportion of patients by admission type is shown in Table I. All patients at HDH were admitted and discharged on the day of surgery. Procedures performed at KGH were a combination of previously admitted elective and emergency cases, patients admitted on the day of surgery and patients admitted and discharged on the day of surgery.
Type of Admission for 150 Eligible Patients
Overall continuity of care
Seventy-eight (52%) of the 150 eligible patients were assessed by the resident preoperatively. Of these, 28 were assessed before the day of surgery and 50 on the day of surgery. Seventy-two of these 78 patients had their postoperative care directed by the same resident.
Of the 150 patients, 78 spent at least one night in hospital. Of these 78 patients, 31 (40%) were assessed preoperatively, had postoperative care directed by the resident and were assessed daily by the same resident.
Ambulatory centre patients
Of the 46 eligible patients from the HDH, 9 (20%) were assessed preoperatively by the resident. This rate was significantly lower than that for non-HDH cases (p < 0.001).
Emergency cases
Of the 30 eligible patients in this subgroup, 25 (83%) were assessed by the resident preoperatively. This rate was significantly higher than for non-emergency cases (p < 0.001). Fourteen (47%) of the 30 patients received complete care from the same resident.
Resident seniority
Of all eligible patients, 48 (32%) had procedures performed by chief (PGY-V) residents, and 102 (68%) by other residents.
Of patients whose procedures were performed by the chief resident, 45 (94%) were assessed preoperatively. This was a significantly greater proportion of patients than was assessed by other residents (p < 0.001). Sixteen (39%) of the 41 patients who were hospitalized for at least 1 night received complete care from the same chief resident.
Of patients whose procedures were performed by residents other than the chief resident, 33 (32%) patients were assessed preoperatively. Of 37 patients hospitalized for at least one night, 15 (41%) received complete care from the same resident.
Fig. 1 summarizes the results of preoperative assessment overall, and in the ambulatory, emergency, chief-resident and non-chief-resident subgroups. Fig. 2 compares complete continuity of care provided overall, and by the 3 subgroups. There were no statistical differences between these groups (p >0.1).
The percentage of patients assessed preoperatively (before entering the operating room) by residents who were also present at the operation. O = overall, ACC = ambulatory centre cases, EC = emergency cases, CRC = chief-resident cases, NCC = non-chief-resident cases.
The percentage of patients receiving complete continuity of care (preoperatively, operatively and postoperatively) by the same resident.
Preadmission clinic
One service consisting of 3 surgeons holds a preadmission clinic run by residents. Patients booked for elective operations are reassessed approximately 1 week preoperatively in this clinic. Of the 26 eligible patients who underwent elective procedures at the KGH done by surgeons on this service, 15 (58%) were assessed in the preadmission clinic. By comparison, of 37 elective procedures done at the KGH by the other surgeons in the division, 20 (54%) were previously assessed by residents. There was no statistical difference between these 2 groups (p >0.1).
Discussion
All phases of care except post-discharge care were included in this study. Its prospective and all-inclusive nature ensured that the results were representative of the variety of residents and patients normally encountered. The disadvantage of this study design was the potential for residents to change their behaviour because they knew they were being observed.
Overall, only one half of patients were assessed preoperatively. The implication is that for half of the cases, residents were operating on patients whom they did not assess or for whom they had not confirmed the diagnosis. The retrospective US study by Anderson and associates8 reported a 70% preassessment rate.
As evidenced by Fig. 1, patients at the ambulatory centre had very low preassessment rates. This is particularly significant as the greatest number of patients in this study were ambulatory centre patients (Table I). The reasons for this low rate of preassessment were: lack of physical space in the centre and lack of attendance at preoperative outpatient clinics.
Patients presenting as emergency cases were generally assessed preoperatively. Reasons for lack of preoperative assessment in these patients were related to performance of the procedure by a resident on call who might not have been involved in the complete work-up.
The reason for the high rate of preoperative assessment by chief residents was that there was physical space at the KGH where patients could be properly assessed before entering the operating room. Further, more junior residents are burdened by ward and emergency duties between operations and at the beginning of the day and must attend outpatient clinics. It is during this time that chief residents are able to assess same-day admission and day surgery patients.
Interestingly, Anderson and associates8 reported that junior residents at their institution had higher preoperative assessment rates than senior residents (75% versus 67%).
Complete continuity of care throughout the patient’s hospital stay was around 40%, with no difference between emergency, chief-resident and non-chief-resident subgroups. For the majority of patients who did not receive complete continuity of care, the deficit was in preoperative assessment. The major reason why a patient did not receive postoperative care from the same resident was because the resident performed the operation with a surgeon from a different service. Anderson and associates8 reported complete continuity of care in 24%; however, post-discharge follow-up was also included in their analysis.
The service with a preadmission clinic had higher rates of preoperative assessment than the other services. However, the impact was not significant. This observation is surprising since the preadmission clinic was designed to improve resident involvement in the preoperative phase. If resident attendance at such a clinic is mandatory, and if the resident makes an effort to be present at the procedure of the patient seen in the clinic, then preoperative assessment should reach 100%. However, in this study, senior general surgery residents tended to “send” interns, medical students and off-service residents to the preadmission clinic. Hence, when these patients came to the operating room, the senior resident (who often performs the procedure) was meeting the patient for the first time.
The preadmission clinic was seen as a project to ensure that patients’ blood work and electrocardiograms were up to date. Residents failed to take the opportunity to use the clinic as a tool to assess general surgical problems that they deal with in the operating room. Mandatory clinic attendance and encouraging a change of attitude toward the clinic may increase its effectiveness in the future.
Continuity of care may also improve if the program organization is changed. Mentor-type rotations (1 surgeon, 1 resident) improve continuity of care according to the study by Chung and associates.9 They reported nearly 100% continuity experience with the mentor system. However, the number of patients seen was significantly reduced (by over 50%) compared with traditional service-based rotations.
With the present surgery program organization, the following recommendations may improve continuity of care:
Provision of adequate space at the ambulatory centre to allow preoperative assessment on the day of surgery.
An increase the number of clinics attended by residents or mandatory attendance at preadmission clinics.
Emphasis on preoperative assessment of patients so residents feel obliged to assess patients between cases.
Conclusions
This study serves as a reference for continuity of care experience in Canadian surgical programs. Factors such as ambulatory surgery and junior level of training negatively effect continuity of care experience. There is much room for improvement to further meet the requirements of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. For this to happen, the structure of general surgery programs must be analysed to ensure residents are able to attend outpatient clinics regularly. Finally, changes should be considered to improve continuity of care in outpatient and same-day admission clinics where the volume is high.
Footnotes
Presented at the Queen’s University Surgery Residents’ Research Day (May 1998) and at the Canadian Association of General Surgeons Residents Research Meeting (May 1998).
- Accepted December 15, 1998.
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