Background: Improving patient satisfaction is a major focus of hospitals and is a widely reported, public hospital quality measure. Satisfaction could be driven by many factors, including patient perceptions of communication and continuity of care with their primary care physician (PCP). Hospitalists play a key role in this communication. This study aims to characterize patient […]

Background: Effective patient‐physician communication is associated with improved patient experience and superior clinical outcomes. Designing interventions that have a measurable impact on physician communication scores, however, has been challenging. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether a physician identification tool used in an academic medical center would improve patient perceptions of physician communication, […]

Background: As the hospital workforce becomes increasingly interdisciplinary in recognition of the different skillsets required for effective patient care, high quality communication will become ever‐more critical. How often various team members communicate, and the paths along which information flows, is poorly understood. We used network analysis to document intra‐ and inter‐disciplinary communication in one hospital […]

Background: As of July 2010, there were more than 30,000 hospitalists in the United States. The quality of care rendered by hospitalists is not uniform. Although patient satisfaction metrics like Press Ganey attempt to measure service excellence, no empiric research has been performed to characterize or define clinical excellence in hospital medicine. Methods: The Chiefs […]

Background: Undiagnosed and uncontrolled hypertension are prevalent public health issues. Their relationship with low health literacy, which affects approximately 36% of adult Americans, is not well studied. We evaluated the relationship between low health literacy and elevated blood pressure at hospital presentation. Methods: We conducted a cross‐sectional evaluation of adult patients hospitalized at Vanderbilt University […]

Background: The patient‐physician relationship is complex, often infused with a number of intangible factors. Several studies have reported that physician attire may be an important and modifiable determinant of a patient’s trust, confidence and satisfaction in their physician. Because the context and urgency of care, patient and physician factors and cultural beliefs may all influence […]

Background: Strong physician communication skills can enhance the patient experience and improve patient satisfaction but data consistently reveal dissatisfaction with physician‐patient interactions with little evidence examining specific deficiencies among physicians. Further, few communication improvement strategies have been developed and tested. In order to improve communication and patient satisfaction, we developed a Standardized Patient (SP) program […]

Background: Teamwork is essential to providing safe hospital care. In a prior study involving 2 medical units in our hospital, Structured Inter‐Disciplinary Rounds (SIDR) improved teamwork climate and reduced adverse events (AE). Methods: We sought to implement complementary unit‐based interventions, Prepared Nurse‐Physician Co‐Leadership and SIDR, on 5 additional medical units and assess the impact on […]

Background: The care delivery in a teaching hospital depends on effective communication amongst multiple healthcare providers. Adverse outcomes and patient care delays are often caused by communication failure. Several hospitals utilize a paging system to communicate messages to their healthcare providers, varying from minor to critical. Frequent physician rotation changes can lead to communication barriers […]

Background: Although physicians are increasingly being trained in communication best practices, improving HCAHPS (hospital consumer assessment of healthcare providers and systems) patient experience scores remains challenging. As faculty engagement in and resulting adoption of communication strategies is unknown, we sought to assess faculty perceptions and adoption of communication elements one year after a communication improvement […]