Background: 1 in 4 patients on the Acute Care of the Elder (ACE) unit at a tertiary care center state that their physicians do not communicate well “all of the time.” Purpose: To enhance physician-patient communication on the ACE unit by writing personalized letters to patients regarding their care. Description: We asked attending physicians to [...]

Background: Frequently hospitalized patients represent a vulnerable population due to discontinuity between episodes of inpatient, outpatient, and specialty care. This discontinuity puts patients at risk for unnecessary over-treatment, dangerous under-treatment, medication errors, and loss of trust due to conflicting messages from healthcare providers. Providers face rising clinical volumes, decreasing familiarity between providers, and ever more [...]

Background: Discharge delays occur because of inconsistent communication among all clinicians and providers. Inefficient utilization of resources also contributes to delays. Effective communication among the patient care team is a foundation of creating an effective discharge planning process. We must standardize the process of communication as well as resource optimization in order to provide our [...]

Background: In an academic center, a physician team may be comprised of medical students, interns, residents, fellows and an attending. Patients encounter multiple members from the same physician team and this often leads to confusion in regards to their individual care. It is evident that this leads to patient confusion and misunderstandings can ensue. A [...]

Background: Sexual harassment poses a risk in any workforce, but is particularly relevant within the medical field as medical professionals are expected to exhibit high levels of trust, professionalism, and confidentiality. While sexual harassment in the practice of medicine is unethical, a third of medical students and residents have reported experiencing sexual harassment during their [...]

Background: In the US, the increase in pre-existing maternal conditions and aging of the maternal population has resulted in a shift towards indirect causes of maternal morbidity and mortality. Indirect causes of morbidity and mortality result from previous existing disease or disease that developed during pregnancy and which were not due to direct obstetric causes, but which were [...]

Background: Recently, the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) put forth their latest expectations of residents using Entrustable Professional Activities (EPA). Furthermore, prompted by an interest in improving the health of the population, enhancing the experience and outcome of the patient, and reducing the per capita [...]

Background: Point-of-Care-Ultrasound (POCUS) is increasingly recognized as a useful diagnostic tool in hospital medicine. US-based resident physicians are increasingly trained in the use of POCUS, but education and training for hospitalist attendings may lag behind creating a potential safety gap in supervision. We developed a test assessing knowledge of routine applications of POCUS used in [...]

Background: The model of “teaching” and “non-teaching” services has become prevalent in academic medical centers, with increasing amounts of patient care provided by hospitalists without resident involvement. Previously, Duke Regional Hospital used a common model for allocating patients to the teaching versus nonteaching service. A hospitalist received all requests for admission from the emergency department [...]

Background: Hospital Medicine is a growing field and integral part of the evolving healthcare system. Hospitalists are challenged to provide high-quality, effective, and efficient care to complex hospitalized patients, which requires medical knowledge in evidence-based practices, the attitudes to work in interdisciplinary healthcare teams, and skills to perform safe transitions in care. Given the rapid [...]