Background: Interest in internal medicine (IM) has substantially decreased over the last decade. Although hospital medicine (HM) is currently the fastest‐growing specialty, many premedical and medical students are not aware of this field. With an aging population and increasing complexity in medical illnesses, it is critical to actively generate enthusiasm and improve recruitment for HM [...]

Background: Emergency department (ED) overcrowding has become a common problem in U.S. hospitals, resulting in increasing numbers of patients admitted to the medicine service being “boarded” in the ED. These patients are typically remote from their primary inpatient team, which can lead to poor patient care and outcomes. In response to this challenge, our institution [...]

Background: Communication between members of the medical team — MDs, RNs, PAs, and house staff — has traditionally relied on a 1‐way paging system. Although effective, this medium has significant limitations including a 1‐way flow of information and a relative lack of patient centeredness. Furthermore, paging systems essentially revolve around a closed‐loop design and have [...]

Background: The UHS Hospitalist Program of Pitt County Memorial Hospital in Greenville, North Carolina, began in 2001 with 4 physicians and 1 nurse‐practitioner. Since that time, our hospitalist program has grown to 23 physicians and 3.25 nurse‐practitioners. A collaborative comanagement model was implemented in March 2008 and continues to evolve as a successful approach to [...]

Background: Although it is important for physicians to be involved with initiatives to enhance patient safety, little training is devoted to this area. In addition, the topic is challenging to teach, as house staff may prefer discussing specific conditions rather than quality improvement. Methods: We developed a longitudinal curriculum to teach the key aspects of [...]

Background: JHCME.com is a free consultative medicine curriculum created for the 20,000 hospitalists in the profession. Now in its second year, the Web site is a response to the growing role that hospitalists play in consultative medicine. According to a 1998 survey of hospitalists, “almost all hospitalists provide preoperative evaluation”. The 2007‐2008 Society of Hospital [...]

Background: Patient handoffs increase the likelihood of miscommunication — and ultimately medical errors — among hospitalized patients. The Joint Commission has recommended a standardized approach to patient handoff as part of its National Patient Safety Goals. Most commercial electronic health records (EHRs) lack effective tools to support patient handoff activities. As a result, many institutions [...]

Background: Discharge summaries at the study institution are currently completed by house staff using a computerized system in place of a handwritten summary or dictation. The system was conceived in 1997 as a handoff tool allowing house staff to electronically update patient status daily to facilitate sign‐out between providers. In 2005, the system was updated [...]

Background: Hospitalists in the United States continue to increase. The scope of their practice has also evolved over time. Of this growing cadre of hospitalists, >80% are internal medicine–trained. Residency in internal medicine (IM) provides robust basic clinical skills and comprehensive management of common IM conditions. However, it does not adequately meet the clinical and [...]

Background: One of the greatest frustrations for health care providers is obtaining timely follow‐up appointments. Hospitalists often feel compelled to extend a patient's length of stay because of their concern for patients being lost to follow‐up. Nowhere is this problem greater than in our unfunded patient population. Purpose: Through a collaboration between hospital administrators, case [...]