154 Getting Down to Business: The Creation and Implementation of a Novel Business Curriculum for Emergency Medicine Residents

Abstract

The healthcare system is a complex industry in which physicians uniquely act simultaneously as practitioners, participants, and managers, and many assert that basic business principles related to the practice of medicine should be taught during residency. The results of a 2019 national needs assessment of emergency medicine (EM) physicians on 20 topics in business and administration demonstrated that many graduating EM residents lack exposure to critical areas such as negotiations, billing, malpractice, and change leadership. This abstract describes the creation, implementation and interim assessment of a business curriculum for EM resident physicians. Utilizing needs assessments and curriculum proposals described in the literature, our team developed an educational curriculum and assessment strategy to implement and evaluate a novel business curriculum for EM residents. The curriculum, The Business of Emergency Medicine, includes a series of 8 educational sessions that are being implemented from July 2020–March 2022 and covers the following topics: personal finance, models of practice, negotiations, billing, malpractice, operations, interpersonal communication, and change leadership. We utilized Kern’s 6-step Method to develop the curriculum, objectives and assessments. The sessions occur during our residency program’s weekly didactic education conference and vary in length from 90 minutes for lecture or panel-based discussions to 240 minutes for an immersive mock trial experience. To date, we have hosted 3 of the 8 sessions. To assess impact, our team is conducting a series of IRB-approved surveys and interviews. Prior to curriculum implementation, we administered a survey to assess residents’ baseline comfort levels with each of the curriculum topics. Residents are also encouraged to complete a pre- and post-survey for each educational session, which combines Likert-based comfort level questions with knowledge assessment questions. We plan to assess sustained knowledge acquisition through both interviews and repeat knowledge testing at 8-10 months post-session. Data collected to date supports that The Business of Emergency Medicine curriculum adds critical value to EM education. Prior to the implementation of the curriculum, 74.1% of residents at our program expressed that the business aspects of their lives and careers cause them stress. Composite, paired pre-post session data demonstrates that before each of the first 3 sessions, an average of 19.8% of residents reported that they “Agreed” or “Strongly Agreed” that they could navigate each session’s topic; afterward, this increased to 83.3%. Our paired pre-post session data also demonstrates an improvement in knowledge assessment scores, which averaged 47.0% answers correct pre-session and improved to 75.4% answers correct post-session (Figure 1). Early data suggests that The Business of Emergency Medicine curriculum is effective at increasing EM resident knowledge about critical business principles related to the practice of emergency medicine. Future work will explore learners’ real time application of this knowledge after graduation.