Purpose The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical

Education requires the residency curriculum to include education about quality of care and the American Board of Internal Medicine requires evalu-ation of trainees ' performance. We developed and implemented a quality of care practicum for internal medicine residents. Methods The program consisted of didactic education, a medical record abstraction experience and quality of care feedback. Residents learned to use a medical record abstraction instrument and evaluated the care in their continuity practice. Quality of care was computed for 17 measures of preventive and diabetes care and fed back to the residents for development of intervention plans in the setting of quality improve-ment education. Results Fifty-seven residents abstracted medical records for 220 patients. The resident abstraction revealed prevention performance ranging from 33 % for chlamydia screening to 95 % for smoking status docu-mentation. Diabetes care included 61 % of patients receiving a glucose control intervention for elevated glycosylated hemoglobin and 88 % for elevated blood pressure. Residents responded to findings with insights concerning barriers to care quality and plans for interventions to improve care. Conclusions A quality of care education and practicum experience integrates well into internal medicine residency training and can contribute to practice-based learning and improvement. Quality of care has become an integral aspect of teaching in Internal Medicine residency programs