Background: Multidisciplinary rounds (MDRs) or discharge huddles in the hospital were developed to enhance safety and streamline discharge by improving communication between members of the patient care team. Despite efforts to coordinate care around a single brief daily meeting, multiple aspects of the patient’s care can change throughout the day. Keeping all members of the [...]

Background: The University of Colorado Hospital (UCH) fails to meet the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) benchmarks for central line utilization rates and central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI). Peripherally inserted central catheters (PICCs) are central lines that are overused and misused at UCH. Overuse of PICC lines increases the risks of CLABSI and PICC-associated deep [...]

Background: Heparin-Induced Thrombocytopenia (HIT) is an antibody-mediated pro-thrombotic disorder which occurs after exposure to heparin product. Diagnosis of HIT type II is rather challenging as affected individual often has other causes of thrombocytopenia and a delayed discontinuation of heparin in HIT type II is associated with a mortality rate of 20-30%. 4Ts score is a [...]

Background: Healthcare costs are a challenge; for the greatest impact, high-value care education should begin early in residency training. Routine lab ordering for hospitalized patients is a well-known cause of high costs. This study utilized multiple interventions to decrease the number of BMPs, CMPs and CBCs ordered by residents on the inpatient medicine service. The [...]

Background: Insufficient communication, particularly at transitions in patient care, is a common and accepted cause of negative outcomes. Handoffs between hospitalists and primary care physicians (PCPs) are infrequent, occurring in 3-20% of cases (2). Many institutions are using discharge summaries as automated methods of handing off the patient to the PCP, however it has been [...]

Background: Medication alerts are one of the touted safety features with the electronic health record (EHR). With time, users tend to override the alerts, which leads to patient harm. The phenomenon of “alert fatigue” is well known to any practicing clinician. Frequent interruptions of little value train physicians to disregard alerts in favor of efficiency. [...]