Psychiatry Resident Outpatient Clinic Supervision: How Training Directors Are Balancing Patient Care, Education, and Reimbursement

Abstract

Recent literature on psychiatry resident outpatient clinic supervision is sparse. In designing outpatient supervision, training directors must balance optimization of patient care, education, and reimbursement. The authors sought to describe current practices for supervision within psychiatry resident outpatient clinics. Directors of US psychiatric residency training programs were surveyed to examine methods used for supervision and billing in psychiatry resident outpatient clinics. Seventy of 183 (38%) training directors responded. Most programs utilize live supervision for medication management visits, but psychotherapy supervision is more varied. Billing practices are variable among programs. This report is intended to help training directors consider options for optimizing patient care and resident education in their outpatient clinics, while maintaining financial solvency. Ultimately, programs should have a way of ensuring all patient cases have some form of ongoing supervision, with possible modification based on training level, resident ability, patient acuity, and appointment type.