Regulating patient flow for educational benefit in the pediatric teaching clinic: Promoting learning through telephoned reminders

As trends in medical care delivery shift from the inpatient to the outpatient setting, it is important that practices in medical education adapt accordingly. The environment of the teaching clinic should be warm, considerate of the needs of students, faculty, patients and their parents, and should allow ample time for discussion and independent learning. It may be difficult to cultivate such an environment in a medical school setting, if patient flow is uncontrolled. We piloted a simple program of telephone reminders for parents of children with appointments. Telephone reminders increased appointment compliance and improved the educational process.