Background: The role of the hospitalists was originally to improve efficiency in medicine; however, in order to reach maximum efficiency, a quality dynamic must be achieved. Hospitalists face a particular challenge with increased workload and patient volume partnered with decreased treatment time.
Purpose: There is no “gold standard” method of rounding for hospitalists. This study investigates hospitalist rounding preferences to improve efficiency based on resources categorized under work assignment and communication.
Description: An anonymous survey assessing the preferences of the rounding process by hospitalists and their perspectives in efficiency and satisfaction was developed and distributed online to a national sample of currently practicing hospitalists. Demographic information and questions pertaining to rounding practices were asked. Descriptive statistics were used to present the responses to the survey questions. All analyses were conducted using SPSS v26. There were 143 respondents, majority male (60%) with (40%) female. Most (80%) expect higher patient volumes when working with an advanced practitioner (AP). Half (50%) preferred rounding independently, (34%) with an AP, and majority (62%) with a resident. Geographic rounding was most efficient at 85%. Text messaging for paging was preferred (70.1%) to pagers (23.4%). Respondents preferred calling a consultant (52%) or text messaging (40%). Majority have not used a WOW yet (74%) believe WOWs could improve efficiency. Majority prefer dictation via Dragon (47%) to the phone application (23%). Only 29% believe their EMR is too complex to navigate. Preference difference due to age was insignificant.
Conclusions: In this study, 143 hospitalists provided preferences for improving rounding efficiency based on elements from work assignment and communication. This analysis can provide insights on designing best practices for hospitalists rounding efficiently.