Background: Post hospital discharge review during the transition from hospital to skilled nursing facility (SNF) is critical to avoid medication errors, improve patient outcomes and reduce hospital readmissions (1-3). Despite increased integration of electronic health records (EHR) across health entities, communication gaps and discharge-related medication errors still persist (2,4). These challenges can be more predominant [...]

Background: Post hospital discharge review during the transition from hospital to skilled nursing facility (SNF) is critical to avoid medication errors, improve patient outcomes and reduce hospital readmissions (1-3). Despite increased integration of electronic health records (EHR) across health entities, communication gaps and discharge-related medication errors still persist (2,4). These challenges can be more predominant [...]

Background: Adolescent e-cigarette use was declared as an epidemic by the U.S. Surgeon general in 2018 and has severe health consequences, including e-cigarette, or vaping, product use-associated lung injury (EVALI). It is known that e-cigarette use is associated with mental health disorders and psychosocial stressors; however, there is a knowledge gap in characterizing psychosocial stressors [...]

Background: Prolonged length of stay (LOS) is associated with worse quality outcomes, poor patient satisfaction, and negative financial performance for hospitals. Geographic cohorting of provider teams and their patients could improve LOS, readmissions, and other quality metrics. Many prior studies of geographic cohorting have shown no beneficial effect on these metrics. In 2021, we implemented [...]

Background: At our institution, an interprofessional (IP) hospital team consisting of a hospitalist, pharmacist, and nurse practitioner, meets with IP teams from local skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) in a weekly teleconference to discuss patients recently discharged from the hospital to the SNFs. The purpose is to identify and reconcile gaps in care during patients’ transitions. [...]

Background: Ongoing staffing shortages, high bed occupancy rates and post COVID changes are putting substantial strain not only on the inpatient environment, but also on the Emergency Department (ED). Increase in the number of boarded patients and length of boarding times pose risk to optimal patient care. Across the nation, the role of hospitalist as [...]

Background: In November 2021, we initiated a project to improve our length of stay (LOS) and plan of care for patients with a LOS of ≥6 days. We created the Complex Cases Rounds (CCRs) for all patients hospitalized under the hospital medicine service in our community hospital, Emory Johns Creek Hospital. Purpose: CCRs provide a [...]

Background: Reducing hospital length of stay (LOS) for patients who are medically ready for discharge is both an operational necessity and a shared patient goal given fixed hospital capacities and rising costs of care. Presently, there is no readily identifiable time-point in the electronic medical record (EMR) denoting when patients become medically ready for discharge. [...]

Case Presentation: A 71-year-old male with a history of diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and stage II small cell bladder cancer on cycle 2 of cisplatin, etoposide, and atezolizumab that he received 1 week ago presented with neck stiffness, pain, fevers, and diffuse muscle aches to his PCP. Concerned about meningitis he was sent to the hospital. A [...]

Case Presentation: Our patient is a 42-year-old female with a past medical history notable for bulimia nervosa that presented to the hospital with a several-month history of worsening confusion and disorientation. The patient’s daughter reported that during this time she had occasional nausea, vomiting, poor appetite, and lower extremity weakness. She also reported that the [...]