Novel integration of systems-based practice into internal medicine residency programs: the Interactive Cost-Awareness Resident Exercise (I-CARE).

BACKGROUND

The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and American Board of Internal Medicine have identified cost-awareness as an important component to residency training. Cost-awareness is generally not emphasized in current, traditional residency curricula despite the recognized importance of this topic.

DESCRIPTION

Using a traditional Morning Report structure and actual charge data from our institution, the charges associated with trainee-directed workup of clinical cases are compared in a friendly competition among medical students, interns, residents, and faculty.

EVALUATION

Anonymous, voluntary survey of all participants and comparison of expenditures by training level were used to assess this pilot program. The educational quality of the I-CARE was rated higher than the prior format of Morning Report by participants (10-point Likert scale; 8.57, 6.81 respectively; p < .001). Open-ended comments were overwhelmingly supportive from faculty and trainees. Cost was lower for attending physicians than for trainees ($1,027.45 vs. $4,264.00, p = .02) and diagnostic accuracy was also highest for attending physicians.

CONCLUSIONS

The I-CARE is easy and quick to implement, and the preliminary results show a popular cost-awareness educational experience for internal medicine trainees. Further study is needed to determine change in practice habits.