Yale Wednesday Evening Clinic

The Wednesday Evening Clinic (WEC) is a student-staffed primary care clinic at the adult New Haven Primary Care Consortium (NHPCC). Located on 150 Sargent Drive in New Haven, the NHPCC largely serves an under-served patient population mostly insured by Medicaid and Medicare. The mission of the WEC is to provide an extensive primary care experience for senior Yale medical students, in which they manage their own cohort of approximately 20-30 adult patients as primary care physicians (PCP) under supervision of attending physicians. WEC is a one-year long, longitudinal ambulatory elective and sub-internship open to any qualifying medical student, with a significant fraction of the student-providers comprised of MD-PhD students who are in the PhD phase of their training. Each year, up to 15 Yale medical students beyond their third year participate.

WEC functions as a group practice. Clinic structure is modeled after standard resident clinics, with student providers divided into three patient care teams, each led by a designated team-attending physician. This team structure ensures that each student is supervised by one designated faculty team-attending physician throughout the year.

Students manage general health maintenance including: chronic conditions (such as diabetes, obesity, and hypertension), age-appropriate screening, urgent visits for acute problems, basic OB/GYN care, and coordinate care for complicated problems seen by specialists.

Most patients in our clinic are from low-income households with many barriers to healthcare access.

WEC may be the patient’s only access to medical care, and you have the potential to improve the lives of your patients and of their families.

All patient care is provided by the medical student assigned to that patient, or by one of their student colleagues. Students are listed as the PCP for a panel of 20-30 patients.

Students will develop clinical skills while actively caring for patients under the close guidance and mentorship of Yale faculty and Yale volunteer attendings.

Clinic night starts with a 30-minute student-led teaching conference covering important topics in primary care. Teaching is done in the format of patient case presentations and interactive group discussions with topics and questions selected from the Yale Office-Based Medicine Curriculum.

There will be opportunities to prepare case reports for publication and partake in primary care-related outcomes and quality improvement research.

• Commitment for at least one year for maximum patient/provider benefit.
• Up to three months of time off (12 Wednesdays) allowed. 36 clinical sessions required.
  
• Completion of at least the Internal Medicine/Neurology clerkship (“The medical approach to the patient” clerkship).
  
• Completion of the “Women and Children’s Health Clerkship” (OB/GYN and Pediatrics) in particular can also be helpful.
  

• Clinic runs from 5.15 PM to 8.30 PM every Wednesday at the Internal Medicine Clinic on 150 Sargent Drive, New Haven, CT.
  
• Clinical sessions are preceded by student-held preclinic conferences 4.45PM -5.15 PM.
  
• Shuttle service from and to selected Yale New Haven campus sites is available and operates on a variable schedule.
  

• Students are assigned to one of three clinical teams.
• Each team is managed by a designated Yale faculty attending.
• Most students typically see 2-3 patients on a given night.
  
• New providers see 1 patient for the first month and then 2 maximum for the second month.
  
• History/physical are performed and assessments are developed independently by the student providers.
  
• Providers then discuss an appropriate plan with an attending and the patient.
  

• Student Providers are listed as PCP in patient charts.
  
• Providers are responsible for following up on tests/results with patients throughout the week in between clinical sessions.
  
• Providers respond to medication refills and patient calls.
• Providers are listed as PCP in patient chart.

"One of the biggest strengths of the clinic is autonomy."

“WEC was also the only rotation where I felt like I totally owned my patients’ care: refill prescriptions, fill out paperwork, make management decisions—often highly independently.”

"WEC provides a great opportunity for me to keep up my clinical skills during my PhD years."

"At the clinic, I regularly see how poverty breaks down, isolates, and sickens individuals...and that perspective has permeated my ideas and plans."

"You watch them start as clumsy ducklings and then blossom into competent and caring clinicians."