Background: Hospital readmissions are common, detrimental for patients and associated with significant costs for the healthcare system. The aim of this study was to evaluate simplified HOSPITAL score (Aubert et al, 2017) in 30-day non-elective readmission prediction at a Brazilian tertiary care teaching public hospital in Southern Brazil. Methods: Retrospective cohort study including all hospital [...]

Background: Interhospital transfer is a poorly understood transition of care that is associated with increased length of stay and mortality. The processes and communication between transferring and accepting facilities and providers are not standardized. Purpose: Hospitalist faculty education on triage processes is an area for potential intervention to improve interhospital transfer. New faculty hires are [...]

Background: Drug overdose deaths are increasing throughout the country. Increasing naloxone availability is a cost-effective way to prevent opioid-related deaths. High-risk patients admitted in the hospital may benefit from a take-home naloxone prescription. This study aims to assess naloxone prescribing practices upon hospital discharge. Methods: An anonymous survey was distributed to attendings, residents, and advanced [...]

Background: Hospital discharge is a vulnerable time: patients are at risk for readmission, adverse events, and death. Activated patients–those with the knowledge, confidence, and skills to engage in activities that promote self-management–are more likely to execute a safe discharge plan and less likely to be readmitted. Educational videos focused on self-management may increase patient activation [...]

Background: As more healthcare systems adopt a hospitalist model to care for their inpatients, there has been extensive research into the impact of this change on metrics such as length of stay and cost. We hypothesize that in a hospitalist model, the frequent transitions of care as new attendings and housestaff come on service diminish [...]

Background: Racial/ethnocultural inequities have been demonstrated throughout our health care system, though their presence among patients who undergo interhospital transfer (IHT), commonly done to provide patients with more specialized care, is poorly understood. The goals of this study are to evaluate the association between patient race/ethnicity and IHT to identify potential racial disparities in this [...]

Background: Hospital discharge is a complex and dangerous process. The emergence and rapid growth of the Hospitalist specialty with the simultaneous decline of traditional practice models complicates discharges. In light of the discontinuity, it is crucial to build reliable communication tools that facilitate transmission of critical information.The discharge summary is an essential piece of that [...]

Background: Previous research indicates that delayed transfer of patients to critical care units from Medical-Surgical units results in increased mortality. However, few studies have compared the outcomes of patients directly admitted from the emergency department (ED) to the intermediate care units (IMC) to those of patients admitted to Medical-Surgical (floor bed) status and subsequently transferred [...]

Background: End of shift sign out is a major part of inpatient care and occurs multiple times for each patient on a Hospital Medicine service. Sign out guidelines recommend specific elements of the written sign out process to ensure patient safety. Use of these standardized written sign outs has been shown to improve care when [...]

Background: The most acute patients presenting to the Emergency Department (ED) requirean admission to the inpatient setting. A timely triage and admission process can improve the outcomes of these critically ill patients. Forty-six percent of admissions through our ED are admitted across multiple medicine services. We originally utilized a rotating Medical Admitting Resident (MAR) to [...]