Background: Health research is rapidly evolving to include patient stakeholders (patients, families and caregivers) as active members of research teams. The proliferation of published frameworks describing the conceptual foundations underlying this engagement, and strategies detailing best practice activities to support this process has led to a diffusion of information. Therefore, the aims of this study [...]

Background: There are an estimated 3.5 million people in the United States living with Hepatitis C virus (HCV); 75-85% of those will develop a chronic infection that can result in liver complications. It is crucial to identify positive infections immediately to ensure linkage to a provider and prevent the advancement of HCV. Initial face-to-face contact [...]

Background: Research on post-discharge outpatient care often focuses on single types of encounters, such as primary care in-person appointments or primary care phone calls. However, patients interact with the healthcare system following discharge using a range of communication methods. This study seeks to examine the role of different types of post-discharge encounters on unplanned hospital [...]

Background: Transfusion of packed red blood cells in the United States has more than doubled from 1997 to 2011; however, it is thought that greater than 50% of transfusions may be unnecessary. Numerous clinical trials have demonstrated that restrictive transfusion strategies are noninferior or superior to liberal strategies across a variety of clinical scenarios; as [...]

Background: Specialty wards (e.g., cardiology or oncology wards) group clinically similar hospitalized patients in efforts to improve outcomes and costs. When these wards exceed capacity, subsequent patients overflow to “geographically dispersed” alternate wards. Geographic dispersion has been associated with care inefficiency and worse outcomes on specialty wards, but has not been studied in a large, [...]

Background: Acute heart failure (AHF) hospitalization is about one million hospital admissions per year and has tripled in the last 30 years in the United States. These illustrate the importance of recognizing early signs of AHF. Therefore, risk stratification can aid physicians in selecting appropriate evidence-based medical therapies. Red blood cell distribution width (RDW) is [...]

Background: The economic burden of illness for patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) with suicidal ideation (SI) and suicide attempt (SA) can be attributed to the intensive level of care required, as these patients are frequently evaluated in the emergency department (ED) and admitted to the hospital. This study evaluated this burden of hospitalized patients [...]

Background: Patients hospitalized for major depressive disorder (MDD) with suicidal ideation (SI) or suicide attempt (SA) may have a high risk for hospital readmission. This study evaluated readmission/subsequent emergency department (ED) visit rates and the associated healthcare resource use and costs among patients who were hospitalized for MDD with SI or SA (SI/SA). Methods: Patients [...]

Background: Limited hospital capacity continues to be one of the major challenges to health care in hospitals in the US and the developed world. This problem manifests in a variety of ways in multiple settings starting with prolonged emergency room wait times and left without being seen rates, prolonged ED boarding time, and elective surgery [...]

Background: Hospital at Home (HaH) care is an alternative to traditional hospitalization with potential to address issues of cost and hospital capacity, while improving outcomes and patient satisfaction. In 2017, the US Department of Health and Human Services began to consider bundled payments for HaH despite a lack of US-based evidence on patient outcomes, real-world [...]