How are we doing with residency training and continuity of care? Not too well if you believe a recent paper called "Continuity of Care in General Surgery Resident Education" appearing online in the American Journal of Surgery.
A group from Rush University in Chicago looked at the records of 228 patients who underwent commonly performed operations during the year 2012. They found that in only 21/228 (9.2%) of cases had the operating resident seen the patient preoperatively, and in 20/223 (9.0%) had the operating resident seen the patient in postoperative follow-up. In no case, did the operating resident see the same patient both pre- and postoperatively.
The table lists the type of cases and the frequency of resident participation in preoperative care or postoperative follow-up.
This is important because on page 18 of the Residency Review Committee (RRC) for Surgery Program Requirements for Graduate Medical Education in General Surgery, the following is stated:
