WRITE Site Visits

• Provide educational support and faculty development for WRITE.
• Provide learning experiences and broaden knowledge of medical specialties for WRITE students in community.
• Provide departmental support of educational opportunities for physicians, students, and other medical personnel in rural communities.
• Give students practice organizing and writing case work-ups and formally presenting cases, including findings and differential diagnosis.
• Make University staff and clinical faculty accessible to community-based physicians to promote mutual understanding.

Department Faculty Visit:

• Student case presentation for faculty visitor (written or oral, determined by the faculty visitor)
• Faculty visitor provides educational presentation or faculty development session
  • Formal presentation
  • Round table discussion
  • Lunchtime talk
• Dedicated one-on-one time with the site director
• Review evaluations/student progress
• Review department clerkship/course goals and objectives
• Discuss areas of improvement or “best practices”
• Dedicated one-on-one time with the student, address student experience, concerns, offer advice/assistance
• Complete Site Visit Feedback form after the visit

Administrative Visit (Regional WWAMI Dean/Office of Rural Programs):

Administrative visits are less formal and may include:

• Meeting with Site Director and student
• One-on-one meeting with student
• Address any administrative, preceptor, or student concerns
• Complete Site Visit Feedback form after the visit
• Request for student case presentation (written or oral, determined by visitor) –  optional
• Faculty development presentation – optional

Depending on the type of visitor, students may be expected to do one case write up that is sent to the visitor one week prior to the visit and possibly an oral case presentation during the visit. Case write up guidelines:

• Cases selected should pertain to the visiting person’s specialty; the student will want to utilize the expertise of the specialty faculty as much as possible;
• Planning ahead will facilitate procurement of cases in specialty areas;
• Students need to keep track of possible patient candidates as they work with their preceptor in the course of normal activity;
• It is not necessary to present exotic or rare cases; common conditions and how they are handled are just as important;
• Plan ahead to do the search and article request;
• It is important to be current and knowledgeable about what is being presented so that effective communication can occur; read the standard textbooks thoroughly about the basic concepts and principles of the condition that is being presented;
• Know each case factually and be prepared to present each one in oral summary form;
• The student must present cases that they have been involved in; i.e., the student has performed the history and physical, considered a differential diagnosis, has been involved with the treatment and has monitored the patient’s progress;
• Bring pertinent x-rays, scans, EKG’s and other data to review;
• The student should have their name and the date on all case presentations along with the type of visit prepared for, i.e., Family Medicine, Pediatrics, etc.;
• All patient records are confidential and should be handled as such – any copied record used in case presentations must not include patient identification;
• Have copies of write-ups available for UW faculty (send electronic file of write-up to your Regional Dean);
• Discussion of cases should be clear and concise;
• Arrange for a place to present the cases and patients – it is inappropriate to discuss cases in a patient’s presence or in a hallway;
• Take advantage of the faculty visitor as a consultant on cases about which the student and/or preceptor(s) have questions;
• Encourage patients whose cases will be presented, to come to the clinic on the day of the faculty visit. If applicable, local patients can be seen in consultation with visiting faculty.
• Encourage the preceptor to be there for the presentations to provide support and clarification of case details if necessary.

The faculty visitor is asked to complete the Site Visit Feedback form.  Upon receipt of the feedback, the WRITE Administrator will forward the information to the specific UWSOM Clerkship Departments and to the WWAMI Regional Office (who should send the Student Feedback Portion ONLY to the site preceptor and student).

General Guidelines:

If the visitor is in travel status while visiting a WRITE site and a breakfast/lunch/dinner meeting with the student, preceptor, and possibly other local physicians or medical personnel is scheduled, WRITE faculty visitors can pay the entire meal check and be reimbursed from the UW School of Medicine (UWSOM). It is also permissible for the WRITE site to provide meal(s) for the faculty visitor.

If UW faculty picks up the tab, the following rules apply to reimbursement by the UWSOM:

All attendees at the meal must have legitimate UWSOM business. Spouses of students or clinical faculty are not generally recognized as having legitimate UWSOM business at meetings and their meals are not reimbursable.

Food purchases are only appropriate when they occur during legitimate business: all-day or half-day meetings/training sessions; meetings during lunch or dinner hour in order to accommodate faculty/student clinic/class schedule.

The amount reimbursed for the meal is limited to the federal per diem rate for that location. Amounts beyond the federal per diem rate will not be reimbursed out of the WRITE budget. UW faculty may have access to a departmental budget that can pay the above per diem amount.

*Alcohol: Alcohol is not a reimbursable expense unless it has been pre-approved. (Pre-approval is only required for a site visit meal when alcohol is served.) Alcohol must be paid for separately from the food portion of the meal and a separate receipt obtained.

To request pre-approval for alcohol purchases with site visit meals, email UWSOM Administrative Director, Miranda Olsen, miranda2@uw.edu. A pre-approval confirmation must be obtained.

Note: Alcohol is discouraged and may only be reimbursed using SOM Dean’s office discretionary funds. Not all requests for alcohol purchases are approved.

UW faculty and staff in travel status who have a meal provided for them by a meeting, event, or other UW Faculty/staff member may not claim the per diem for that meal in their travel reimbursement request.

After travel is completed, your department can process your travel and meal reimbursements through the ARIBA system using the WRITE budget: 07-9632. Do not send receipts, forms, or other documents to Academic Affairs for processing. If also requesting meal reimbursement for meals paid during meetings at WRITE site, the FoodApprovalForm and the List of Attendees Form must be submitted with the reimbursement request in ARIBA.

After travel is completed, your department can process your travel and meal reimbursements through the ARIBA system using the WRITE budget: 07-9632. Do not send receipts, forms or other documents to Academic Affairs for processing. If also requesting meal reimbursement for meals paid during meetings at WRITE site, the FoodApprovalForm and the List of Attendees Form must be submitted with the reimbursement request in ARIBA.

Michelle Fleming
WRITE Administrator
flemingm@uw.edu