Keeping Up With the Orthopaedic In-Training Examination: National Survey on Orthopaedic Residency Training in Practice Management

The evolving health care environment warrants its physicians to be competent in basic practice management (PM) areas. A manifestation of this importance was reflected in the inaugural inclusion of a PM subsection on the 2017 Orthopaedic In-Training Examination. The purpose of this orthopaedic resident national survey study was to gain insight on the current state of formal residency education in PM. This study surveyed 500 orthopaedic residents nationwide in 2016. Resident participation was online, anonymous, and voluntary. Only complete survey responses were included, yielding a 49.2% (246/500) response rate. The majority of orthopaedic residents (72.4%, 178/246) reported no formal education in PM topics, and 86.2% (212/246) responded that they do not receive direct feedback on individual accuracy of Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) code case logging. Of the residents without formal education in PM, 87.1% (155/178) desire its implementation. The evolving health care system is becoming increasingly reliant on physicians to provide cost-effective, value-based health care to its patients. Consideration should be given to formally incorporating basic teaching elements on important PM topics at the residency training level. (Journal of Surgical Orthopaedic Advances 28(2):81–88, 2019) Key words: ACGME core competencies, CPT coding, documentation and coding, orthopaedic residency, residency curriculum, residency education