Background: The traditional role of hospitalists is to provide care to patients hospitalized with acute medical conditions. Over the past few years, this has evolved to improve care transitions and stewardship of hospital resources. Many hospitals may embed hospitalists in the Emergency Department (ED) to improve patient flow into the hospital; however, there are sparse [...]

Background: The traditional role of hospitalists is to provide care to patients hospitalized with acute medical conditions. Over the past few years, this has evolved to improve care transitions and stewardship of hospital resources. Many hospitals may embed hospitalists in the Emergency Department (ED) to improve patient flow into the hospital; however, there are sparse [...]

Background: To date, there are limited reports around the use of well-designed information technology tools to enhance throughput communication during interdisciplinary rounds (IDRs). In collaboration with our technology innovations center, we developed a Microsoft Teams IDR tool known as “NORA.” NORA is an automated process-oriented tool designed to extract patient summary information from electronic health [...]

Background: Emergency department (ED) overcrowding is associated with a range of negative outcomes, including increased patient morbidity, decreased patient satisfaction, provider burnout, and violence against providers. ED boarding of admitted patients coupled with increasing ED patient volumes contributes to overcrowding. Geographic localization, where hospitalist provider teams are assigned patients on the same inpatient unit, has [...]

Background: The Warren Clinic Hospitalist Department oversees adult inpatient admissions for the Saint Francis Health System in Oklahoma, comprising over 140 clinical FTE’s. The department handles approximately 40,000 discharges annually across several acute facilities. The health system has seen unprecedented challenges recently due to COVID-19, staffing shortages, and an increasingly older population. These challenges increased [...]

Background: Facing challenges of capacity strain, many hospitals have implemented programs to prioritize discharges in the morning as a strategy to improve patient throughput, decrease emergency room boarding, and improve patient satisfaction/experience. (1) However, evaluations of these practices have had mixed results. (2) Like many other complex health interventions, priority discharge interventions may fail to [...]

Background: Geographic co-location, the practice of cohorting a panel of patients on the same hospital unit for a single provider or team, is increasingly popular, with 36.4% of adult hospitalist groups reporting unit-based assignments [1]. Benefits include increased hospitalist-patient interaction time, increased odds of multiple same-day patient visits, improved productivity, and greater interdisciplinary communication [2-4]. [...]

Background: Throughput is a hospital priority. Decreasing length of stay is essential to decongesting overcrowded hospitals and maintaining financial viability. Purpose: The purpose of the project was to improve throughput through enhanced interdisciplinary communication. Description: We used the LEAN methodology of process improvement to perform a Value Stream Mapping exercise, which brought diverse clinical staff [...]

Background: The inpatient acute care environment has faced increasing capacity constraints since the COVID-19 pandemic. Factors like deferred care, nursing shortages, and a sicker population contribute to these constraints. Many systems have sought to improve patient flow to alleviate these issues. Efficient patient movement through care steps enhances patient satisfaction, reduces stay length, and minimizes [...]

Background: Hospitals globally have been facing unprecedented challenges with patient throughput and capacity, especially in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Efficient discharge processes are integral to improving bed availability and mitigating the negative outcomes associated with patient boarding in emergency departments Purpose: This study evaluates the efficacy of an early morning huddle approach in [...]