Family Medicine clinic: your residency home

The western Wisconsin Family Medicine clinics are at the heart of our residency program. Several aspects of the clinic experience are important in our success.

Patient population

In the first year, residents will spend one to two half days in clinic at Park Nicollet-Creekside. The clinic patient population is a diverse, high-acuity population with about 11,000 visits annually. Residents care for patients with medical and social complexities, working regularly with interpreters (Spanish, Somali, Bosnian and Russian are among the common languages), The patient population closely mirrors that of St. Louis Park with diversity in ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and age.

The family medicine clinics at Amery Hospital & Clinic and Westfields Hospital & Clinic each have over 26,000 visits annually. The clinic populations are typical for rural health care settings. Responding to the community needs assessment, the clinics work to address mental and behavioral health care needs, access and affordability issues, chronic disease and illness prevention, and equitable care.

Resident schedules

Residents provide comprehensive and continuous care for their own panels of patients and families. On average, second- and third-year residents spend four or five half-days in clinic per week, becoming both expert and efficient in outpatient family medicine by the completion of residency.

Teaching and evaluation in clinic

A faculty preceptor is always available on-site for immediate precepting of patients in clinic. Electronic and print resources, as well as models and other teaching tools are available for resident education.

Reflection on the clinic experience is also an essential part of learning. Residents are regularly videotaped during patient encounters, and review the recordings with faculty. Residents complete structured chart and registry reviews, and they meet regularly with their faculty advisor to review their experience in clinic.

Practice management skills are learned longitudinally over residency, primarily during clinic-based experiences. Residents become familiar with an efficient “real-world” private practice system. Coding and billing is taught extensively during clinic sessions. Included in the curriculum are rural health care policy, quality improvement, population health, and leadership.

Electronic Medical Records

The clinics are equipped with a mature electronic medical record that is fully integrated with the hospital and across the HealthPartners system. Residents have access to clinic and hospital records from any practice site or at home on call.