A GOAL-ORIENTED EVALUATION OF THE FAMILY MEDICINE RESIDENCY PROGRAM AT THE SAINT LOUISE CLINIC

Abstract

Medical residency programs have challenges including cost, quality, and physician shortages. Family medicine residency programs provide training in many specialty areas to ensure physicians have the knowledge needed to treat the whole family. Program evaluations can identify challenges, areas for improvement, and successes in residency programs.

The Family Medicine Residency Program at the Saint Louise Clinic in Murfreesboro, TN, was formed by a partnership of the University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center and Saint Thomas Health. The first class of eight family medicine residents began work in July 2015.

This goal-oriented evaluation was guided by the Center for Disease Control’s Framework for Program Evaluation. The evaluation answered two primary evaluation questions: identify the processes in place to achieve the program’s mission to develop skilled, qualified, and compassionate family medicine physicians and evaluate the program’s compliance with goals, target milestones, timelines, and deliverables during the planning and implementation phases. Interviews with five stakeholders identified secondary evaluation questions. Two areas for improvement were identified from the ten secondary evaluation questions. Program administrators will use the evaluation results to focus on areas for improvement.