Background: Effective interpersonal communication is critical in healthcare. Historically, pagers, phone calls, and in-person conversations have been the main form of in-hospital communication. New communication technologies, such as electronic messaging, are increasingly becoming the primary way for healthcare workers to communicate. In 2017, 27% of Society of Hospital Medicine responding organizations reported some use of [...]

Background: The patient-physician relationship is influenced by several factors including the environment of care. Given the increased use of telemedicine – catalyzed by the COVID-19 pandemic – understanding preferences for and comfort with telemedicine is important. This study aimed to explore patient preferences for various types of video visit background environments and their effects on [...]

Background: Continuous multiparameter, physiologic monitoring may improve patient outcomes in the medical-surgical wards by identifying patients who need clinical evaluation and or intervention. Alarms may be actionable or non-actionable dependent on whether the alarm is technical in nature or represents a substantive change in patient condition. Alarms will enhance patient care when followed by provider [...]

Background: eHealth interventions provide opportunities to enhance asthma or COPD self-management, though eHealth literacy (eHL) needs to be evaluated in this population. We evaluated the association between eHL and self-efficacy, as well as the willingness to use eHealth applications in patients hospitalized for chronic lung diseases (i.e., asthma and COPD). Methods: This cross-sectional observational study [...]

Background: Respiratory failure is the most common organ failure syndrome in US hospitals (1). Hospitalists strive to detect the earliest signs of respiratory instability. Measurement of respiratory vital signs (like respiratory rate & oximetry) is a necessary aspect of risk stratification, but it is not sufficient. In one study, 46% of hospitalized patients had no [...]

Background: In the US, 60% of adults have at least one chronic disease (such as diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease) and 42% have more than one. Chronic disease is the leading cause of death and disability and significantly contributes to annual healthcare spending (1). Studies have shown that patient education interventions can improve outcomes in [...]

Background: Inhaled treatments are the cornerstone of management of obstructive lung disease, though patients frequently misuse inhalers, leading to worse disease outcomes. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been increased interest in video-module based interventions for patients with chronic diseases. However, patients’ ability to interact with such educational resources necessitates access to technology and proficiency [...]

Background: As hospital care becomes increasingly reliant on technology, it is important to address disparities in access and use of technology among hospitalized patients. While access to technology itself is becoming more widespread, older inpatients may still experience technology-related disparities due to varying abilities to use/obtain support for technology use. We sought to compare access, [...]

Background: Thromboprophylaxis of hospitalized COVID-19 patients – including extended, post-discharge thromboprophylaxis in high-risk patients – has been evaluated in multiple randomized trials and incorporated into antithrombotic guidelines. Yet, provider adoption of best practices remains sub-optimal. Our aim was to assess whether an electronic health record (EHR)-agnostic clinical decision support (CDS) tool incorporating the validated IMPROVE-DD [...]

Background: Health information technology (HIT) systems, though designed to improve clinical workflow efficiency, have ironically contributed to clinician burnout, especially among hospitalists who depend on these systems for patient care and coordination (Adler-Milstein 2020). Addressing these challenges requires a detailed, resource-intensive process to identify workflow inefficiencies. Because this process is difficult, it is often performed [...]