Clinic

Creeksider Newsletter
Spring 2007
Winter 2007
Fall 2006

Creekside Clinic
Creekside Clinic, the residency’s family medicine center, serves as the site for both resident/faculty clinic and residency administration. Its centralized location, a short walk across Minnehaha Creek from Methodist Hospital, makes it convenient, yet the separate building maintains a welcoming “small clinic” feeling.

Creekside is a Park Nicollet clinic, which provides us with the resources of a large multi-specialty clinic system. The 9,600 square foot clinic includes 12 exam rooms, X-ray, laboratory, and two procedure rooms. There is a large resident office, with individual work spaces and file cabinets for each resident, and a preceptor room with both print and electronic resources. Each exam room, resident desk, and work station has computer access to patients’ medical records (in- and out-patient, as well as scanned outside records and digitalized radiology images) and internet access.

At Creekside, we serve a diverse and steadily growing number of patients through approximately 11,000 visits annually. The patient population closely mirrors that of St. Louis Park with diversity in ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and age. Our two most requested languages for interpretive services are Spanish and Somali, followed by Russian, Vietnamese, Bosnian, and Hmong.

Residents provide comprehensive and continuous care for their own panels of patients and families. On average, first-year residents spend a half-day in clinic per week, and second- and third-year residents spend four or five half-days in clinic per week, becoming both expert and efficient in outpatient family medicine by the completion of residency. Residents and faculty team leaders meet quarterly on an informal basis to maximize psychosocial and medical management of patients. Residents have the opportunity to review videotapes of their patient interactions and to do and review peer chart reviews, and they meet on a quarterly basis with their faculty advisors to review their experience.

Practice management skills are learned longitudinally over the three years of residency, primarily during clinic-based experiences. Residents become familiar with an efficient “real-world” private practice system. They take an active role in clinic management, both medical- and business-related. Each resident joins a clinic committee that meets monthly, rotating assignments each year. Committees deal with the details of clinic operations, quality improvement, and patient education. Coding and billing is taught extensively during clinic sessions. The assistant chief resident rotation in the third year adds exposure to specific business, management, and leadership issues.

Central Clinic is a free walk-in clinic in St. Louis Park for children and teens, staffed by our third-year residents.