Background: Hospitalized patients often have multiple care providers and physicians frequently fail to introduce themselves and their role to patients. Patients’ lack of awareness of their medical providers may lead to decreased quality of care and patient satisfaction. The aim of this study was to investigate patients’ ability to identify their doctors and evaluate the [...]

Background: CHF is the most common cause of hospital admission in the Medicare population. CMS has instituted policies penalizing Hospitals that have a high readmission rate. This has lead institution to focus on methods to reduce readmission; most of these efforts emphasize improving easy access to improve/stabilize the patient’s cardiac condition. A few studies have [...]

Background: Initial studies demonstrate that locating the majority of a physician’s patients on a designated unit (geographic rounding) can enhance physician efficiency and facilitate physician nurse communication. Further benefits can include better patient satisfaction, improved patient outcomes and streamlined hospital throughput. Literature also supports the use of multi‐disciplinary rounds to improve coordination of care and [...]

Background: Few studies have examined the effect of a computerized order entry (CPOE) clinical pathway on clinical outcomes in hospitalizations for acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD). Reducing readmission rates for AECOPD is critical to hospitals and accountable care organizations, as CMS is finalizing expansion of the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program of the [...]

Background: Traditional interdisciplinary rounds are unstructured and take place in a conference room. To promote optimal communication among all team members and engage patients in the daily plan and disposition process, we transformed our rounds from a conference room format to a structured bedside model. Though a mobile model for interdisciplinary rounds has the potential [...]

Background: The Joint Commission has identified lapses in communication as one of the leading root causes of sentinel events. Although there has been literature published surrounding the handoff of patient information among members of the same team, there is a paucity of literature exploring the communication of patient information amongst consulting physicians and primary teams [...]

Background: Hospitalization for acute medical illness is associated with an increased risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE). While pharmacologic prophylaxis has been shown to reduce the incidence of VTE, rates of prophylaxis are low in many U.S. hospitals. There have been numerous efforts to increase prophylaxis use in hospitalized patients, but the ability to evaluate the [...]

Background: Chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a major cause for liver transplant and liver‐related deaths in the United States. Roughly 75% of those infected were born between 1945 — 1965 – the baby boomer population. New and effective treatments are currently available. The CDC and USPSTF recently recommended screening all patients in this [...]

Background: Patients hospitalized for acute medical illness may be at increased risk for venous thromboembolism (VTE). Identifying those medical patients most at risk for VTE is of increasing importance and emphasized in recent guidelines. Several risk assessment models (RAMs) exist, but their ability to accurately determine VTE risk in medical patients is not clear. The [...]

Background: Telemetry monitoring is often overused in inpatient setting. This has led to overcrowding of telemetry beds, increasing boarding time in emergency department, and inefficient distribution of limited hospital resources. Furthermore, telemetry has impact on patient’s activity level and de conditioning, and subsequently increasing the length of stay. Methods: We did a prospective follow up [...]