Background: Discharge planning plays a critical role in managing hospital length of stay (1). We report on the implementation of a program in a large hospital system where health care providers were requested to estimate and record the Medically Ready for Discharge Date (MRDD) in the electronic health record (EHR) for hospitalized patients to facilitate [...]

Background: Our standard Hypoglycemia Protocol primarily utilizes juice to treat hypoglycemia. The system currently allows both the Hypoglycemia Protocol and a renal diet to be active simultaneously. This algorithm has no restrictions on administering orange juice to treat hypoglycemia for patients despite exclusion of orange juice for patients on a renal diet. Considering anecdotal instances [...]

Background: Identifying discharge barriers, reducing length of stay (LOS) and optimizing the observed over expected (O/E) ratio for LOS are crucial in healthcare management. Addressing obstacles—DME needs, medical issues, diagnostic/procedure delays, administrative hurdles—can streamline discharge, enhancing outcomes, optimizing resources, cutting costs, and improving hospital efficiency. Effective discharge planning, interdisciplinary collaboration, and patient education are vital [...]

Background: Interhospital transfer (IHT) processes vary across institutions. The fragmented and complex nature of IHTs pose patient safety risks. The implementation of a standardized IHT process with a templated note for hospital medicine patients at our institution demonstrated promising patient safety outcomes and a significant increase in physician satisfaction. A second, iterative intervention expanded this [...]

Background: Background: Rapid response (RR) is a system in place to intervene when hospitalized patients experience acute deterioration in medical conditions.Problem Definition: Residents at LSU Shreveport/Monroe Family Medicine program have reported facing decision-making challenges and increased stress when called to manage rapid responses.Aim Statement: Enhance the rapid response management skills and confidence among the residents [...]

Background: Rapid Response Teams (RRTs), also known as medical emergency or patient response teams, are widely implemented in hospitals to improve patient outcomes. Existing literature demonstrates that RRTs reduce in-hospital mortality, cardiac arrest, and unplanned ICU admissions. However, less is known about the outcomes of patients transferred to the ICU following an RRT activation. At [...]

Background: The Reducing REVISITS study enrolled and randomized diverse hospitals to identify scalable solutions for reducing preventable acute care for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) utilizing Society of Hospital Medicine’s (SHM’s) award-winning mentored implementation model (MIM). MIM provides one year of expert advice and tools through virtual site visits and monthly meetings to [...]

Background: Acute heart failure exacerbations remain a leading cause of morbidity and mortality and are associated with high rates of hospital admissions and healthcare expenditure. As hospital medicine (HM) primary service footprint expands, further information regarding patient care provided by HM compared to cardiology (CV) is needed. As part of a broader effort to improve [...]

Background: Hospital antibiotic stewardship programs (ASPs) play a critical role in minimizing unnecessary antibiotic use and combating antimicrobial resistance. Although various antibiotic stewardship interventions have been described, the feasibility and sustainability of these approaches remain uncertain. Furthermore, some interventions may be challenging for smaller hospitals to implement due to informatics resource limitations. Thus, we aimed [...]

Background: Hospital readmissions are a significant healthcare concern, particularly for patients harboring liver cirrhosis. Optimizing discharge planning and transitional care management for this population requires a detailed understanding of the factors associated with readmission risk, stratified by disease severity. Elixhauser Comorbidity Index v2024.1 guided identification of patients with standardize mild versus moderate-severe cirrhosis plus respective [...]