Background: Hospital readmission reduction has gained greater awareness since the passage of the Affordable Care Act and within it the Hospital Readmission Reduction Program (HRRP). Policy makers sought to improve quality of care by increasing reporting transparency and imposing financial penalties on facilities for excessive readmission rates. Baylor Scott & White Health (BSWH) remains committed to reducing hospital readmissions and in doing [...]

Background: Night coverage for hospital medicine teams can be the most expensive and busy of all shifts. According to 2020 State of Hospital Medicine Report, only 5.7% of teaching centers use a combination of onsite and off-site night-time coverage. In July 2022, our academic hospital medicine team was asked to create an additional inpatient service [...]

Background: Telemedicine emerged as an innovative approach to addressing staffing shortages for hospitalists in resource-limited areas (1), the COVID-19 surge (2), and off-hour shifts (3). Telemedicine can be adapted to non-traditional hospitalist roles, i.e. the triagist where a hospitalist assesses patients for potential admissions and supports outpatient to inpatient transitions (4). Modifying the triagist to [...]