Improving Well-Being Among Trainees: A Partnership to Reduce Barriers to Primary Care Services.

BACKGROUND: Improved well-being is a focus for graduate medical education (GME) programs. Residents and fellows often express difficulty with visiting primary care physicians, and this issue has not been thoroughly investigated. OBJECTIVE: We reported implementation and utilization of a primary care concierge scheduling service and a primary care video visit service for GME trainees. METHODS: GME leaders collaborated with Duke Primary Care to offer trainees a concierge scheduling service and opportunity for primary care video visits. This quantitative evaluation included (1) analysis of the institutional GME survey results pre- and post-intervention, and (2) review of use of the concierge scheduling line. RESULTS: Comparison of the 2018 and 2019 internal GME surveys showed a decrease in perceived barriers accessing primary care (58% to 31%, P < .0001), a decrease in perceived delays to access primary care (27% to 21%, P = .023), and an increase in respondents who reported needing health care services in the past year (37% to 62%, P < .0001). Although increased need for health services was reported, there was no difference in the proportion reporting use of health services (63% and 65%, P = .43). Of the 142 concierge line calls reviewed, 127 (87%) callers requested clinic appointments, and 15 (10%) callers requested video appointments. Of callers requesting clinic appointments, 99 (80%) were scheduled. CONCLUSIONS: Providing resources to connect trainees to primary care greatly reduces their perception of barriers to health care and may provide a convenient mechanism to schedule flexible primary care appointments.

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