Background: Patient portal use has been associated with improved patient experience, safety, and health outcomes.1,2 To keep patients better connected to their providers, our institution aimed to expand MyChart utilization. We piloted a standard operating procedure (SOP) to enhance MyChart education and uptake among those admitted to an inpatient general medicine unit. Purpose: Our intervention [...]

Background: “Hospital at Home” (HaH) models of care have existed for over 20 years in the U.S. Recent demand for healthcare value, advances in relevant technologies, and the ongoing global pandemic have driven renewed attention to HaH models, including from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and have spawned several pilots within the [...]

Background: Current guidelines recommend against routine neurodiagnostic testing for evaluation of simple febrile seizures. We aimed to assess variation in rates of neurodiagnostic testing and establish Achievable Benchmarks of Care (ABCs) for children evaluated for simple febrile seizures at children’s hospitals. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study of children 6 months to 5 years with [...]

Background: Patients’ satisfaction has been shown to be associated with improved health outcomes and reduced health care utilization. The Center for Medicare Services (CMS) has linked patient satisfaction to financial incentives as part of the value-based purchasing program. Patient satisfaction in the inpatient setting is measured using the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and [...]

Background: The ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic has stressed patients, hospital systems, and society and, while treatment modalities are continuously evolving. A phase 3 clinical trial of monoclonal antibody infusion in appropriate patients with Casirivimab and Imbdevimab demonstrated a 70% reduction in hospitalization or all-cause death compared to placebo (ref 1). An emergency use authorization by [...]

Background: Patient safety indicators (PSI) are hospital quality measures designed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to capture potentially-preventable adverse events. PSI-12 is defined as perioperative pulmonary embolism (PE) or deep vein thrombosis (DVT). It is unclear how active COVID-19 infection, which is known to be associated with coagulopathy, has impacted PSI-12 [...]

Background: Symptomatic venous thromboembolism (VTE) occurs in about 1% of patients within 3 months after admission to a medicine ward.1,2 The 9th Edition American College of Chest Physicians Guidelines recommends the use of pharmacologic VTE prophylaxis in acutely ill hospitalized medical patients at increased risk of thrombosis and suggests against its use in low risk [...]

Background: Evidence-based guidelines/protocols for electrolyte replacement that safely encourage oral (PO) and/or intravenous (IV) dosing attain goal levels more successfully than standard care. PO is generally more comfortable and less dangerous than IV. Between 5/2017-11/2017, our institution dosed ~300,000 doses of potassium (K) and magnesium (Mg), with 30% and 19% of doses being PO, respectively. [...]

Background: Patient portal use has been associated with improved patient experience, safety, and health outcomes.1,2 To keep patients better connected to their providers, our institution aimed to expand MyChart utilization. We piloted a standard operating procedure (SOP) to enhance MyChart education and uptake among those admitted to an inpatient general medicine unit. Purpose: Our intervention [...]

Background: Overtreatment or low value care, including overutilization of laboratory testing, has an estimated annual cost of waste of $75.7 to 101.2 billion annually. Providing performance feedback to hospitalists has been shown to be an effective way to encourage the practice of quality improvement focused medicine. There remains limited data regarding implementation of performance feedback [...]