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H. Winter Griffith Resident Scholarship for Excellence in Practice Improvement and Patient-centered Care Presented to Erik Gulbrandsen

LEAWOOD, Kan.—Erik Gulbrandsen, DO, Southern Illinois University, was named the recipient of the 2011 H. Winter Griffith Resident Scholarship for Excellence in Practice Improvement and Patient-centered Care at the Conference on Practice Improvement in Newport Beach, CA.

“Family medicine residency programs are faced with unique challenges in the management of chronic disease, as new physicians enter every July, patients are cross-covered by different physicians in clinic, and patients get a new doctor every 3 years. As our clinic began an application for NCQA PCMH status, I developed a quality improvement project to better care for our patients under the direct supervision of my faculty mentor, Dr Marci Moore-Connelley,” said Dr Gulbrandsen.

This project focused on prospective population management and patient education. Department staff developed monthly population management conferences to help teach the chronic care guidelines, both with physician and nursing staff present. During their monthly conferences, lists of patients that were uncontrolled were given to physicians who then addressed the individual patient non-compliance.

In clinic, the nursing staff helped coordinate the chronic care and a written care plan was given to the patient with outlined care goals and objectives. The physician addressed the items on the care plan with the patient to encourage self-management.

“Every patient with chronic metabolic diseases was given a care plan at every visit,” explained Dr Gulbrandsen. “This point of care education helped solidify the topics learned at the conference as well as solved the "physician hop"—seeing multiple providers during a short period of time. In short, this project helped achieve statistically significant improvements in our composite quality care measures. It was a team effort and could not be completed without buy in and support from the entire clinic and physician staff.”

The H. Winter Griffith Resident Scholarship for Excellence in Practice Improvement and Patient-centered Care recognizes excellence in practice improvement involving patient-centered care by an outstanding family medicine resident.  The award honors H. Winter Griffith, MD, who was the author of more than 27 books, including his first book, Instructions for Patients. Dr Griffith was a strong advocate for patient engagement through patient education. Thus, this award will recognize outstanding patient interaction, education, care, and outcome by a resident in the family medicine medical home setting.

The Conference on Practice Improvement is cosponsored by the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine and the American Academy of Family Physicians. 

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About STFM

The Society was founded in 1967 to respond to the needs of family medicine educators. From a small beginning of 105 founding members, we have grown to a membership of nearly 5,000 teachers of family medicine. These teachers include medical school professors, preceptors, residency program faculty, residency program directors, and all involved in family medicine education.

To learn more about family medicine, professional development for family medicine educators, and scholarships and awards from STFM, visit www.stfm.org.