Background: Bedside nurses often communicate via alphanumeric (text) paging with hospitalists and other providers. To help the nurse and provider triage the urgency of these messages, our institution has implemented a tiered paging labeling system based on message priority, but the use of this labeling system and the concordance between provider perception and nurse perception [...]

Background: Transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) is a clinical tool for cardiac evaluation of hospitalized patients but is frequently associated with a greater hospital length of stay.1 At our institution, delays in TTE completion have been attributed to a shortage of sonographers and overutilization by inpatient teams for certain clinical conditions. From January to October 2023, only [...]

Background: The process by which patients are admitted to the inpatient setting after evaluation in the emergency department (ED) is a critical component of their care transition. Striking the proper balance between the speed of the process and the quality of the communication is paramount to optimizing workflows and ensuring patient safety. At our institution, [...]

Background: Hospital bed capacity is limited across the nation due to increased demand and staffing shortages. Capacity shortages result in hospital diversion and therefore impact Emergency Department (ED) length of stay and ED medical boarding. A large tertiary hospital typically serves as the referral hub for many smaller hospitals in the region, and optimizing bed [...]

Background: A hospitalist “triagist” physician assesses patients for admission and supports the transition of patients from the outpatient to inpatient setting [1]. Active bed management and triaging by hospitalists have been reported to improve emergency room (ER) patient flow and ER to ICU throughput, while hospitalist-directed transfer and admission of stable ER patients may shorten [...]