Evaluating the Impact of an Academic Interdisciplinary Patient Aligned Care Team on Patients and Trainees within a Veterans Affairs Academic Medical Center

The Veterans Health Administration (VA), with the Office of Academic Affiliations, launched a pilot project, the Centers of Excellence in Primary Care Education (CoEPCE), to create a training program focused in the primary care setting with multiple disciplines (medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and mental health) to evaluate the benefit of interdisciplinary education. This study quantitatively and qualitatively assesses the implementation of this training program based on perspectives from patients and trainees through surveys and semi-structured interviews. There was no statistically significant difference in how patients perceived their care before and after implementation. Trainees of the program, when assessed at baseline and three months after implementation, did have statistically different responses in two survey question domains, the Team Climate Inventory (TCI) and Student Perceptions of Interprofessional Clinical Education-Revised (SPICER). Pharmacy residents provided valuable feedback regarding their involvement in the program, skills gained, and ideas for quality improvement. Future evaluations and assessments are ongoing by the CoEPCE team at Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center.Pharmacy Practice and Translational Research, Department o