ResEval: a web-based evaluation system for internal medicine house staff

Abstract

The evaluation and assessment of physicians-in-training (house staff) is a complex task. Residency training programs are under increasing pressure [1] to provide accurate and comprehensive evaluations of performance of resident physicians [2,3]. For many years, the Internal Medicine training program at NYU School of Medicine used a single standardized paper form for all evaluation scenarios. This strategy was inadequate as physicians train in multiple diverse settings evaluation of physicians in the intensive care unit is quite different from those in the general clinics. The paper system resulted in poor compliance by house staff and faculty in the completion of evaluations. In addition, the data being collected from the paper forms was of poor quality due to the non-specific nature of the questions. A committee was formed in 2001, which created a new strategy for evaluating the core competencies of house staff. Given the ubiquity of web accessible computers in the clinical and non-clinical areas of hospitals and the flexibility a computerized system would provide, a web-based evaluation system was designed and implemented. This system allows for on-the-spot evaluations tailored to the evaluator, evaluatee and the venue of the evaluation. During the 2002 residency year, data was collected on satisfaction and use of the system and compared with the previous paper evaluation.