title: [A study of the effect of patient load and diseases upon resident training in a family medicine clinic].
abstract: Patient appointments and scheduling of patients and physicians are the first step in family medicine practice. The goals of outpatient services are to train the family physicians, to provide comprehensive and continuing health care for the family and its members. We evaluated the effect of the appointment system upon residents' training in a family medicine clinic of the Kaohsiung Medical College Hospital. The results were as follows: during the period between Aug. 1985 and Nov. 1986, a total of 2,220 patients and 5,891 out-patient encounters was recorded in this module. The subject age was mostly in the range of 16-64 years for all trainees. The distribution of the chronic diseases was relatively even for all except two trainees. For 4 residents, there were 40-60% more than the ideal patient numbers per session. This abnormal situation interferes with the normal functioning of family medicine clinics. The provocative results of this study suggest at least two important avenues for improvement. The first is to modify the appointment system. The second is to schedule the ideal amount of patients and kinds of diseases in order to provide comprehensive and continuous care for the family and its members.
authors.forename: K C
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Fung
authors.forename: T T
authors.initials: TT
authors.lastname: Chau
authors.forename: Y S
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: C T
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: H W
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D001071:Appointments and Schedules; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005194:Family Practice / Q000193:education*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007396:Internship and Residency; D008875:Middle Aged; D013624:Taiwan