Background: Sub-optimal communication during care transitions contributes to poor patient outcomes. Patients who undergo interhospital transfer (IHT, the transfer of patients between hospitals) are at especially high risk given their level of illness severity. In examination of the IHT process at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), a 740-bed tertiary care referral hospital, we previously found [...]

Background: Physicians and nurses often overestimate patients’ understanding of their illness, medications, treatments, and care plans. Fragmented discussions can lead to inconsistent conveyance of key information to patients and their caregivers. Multidisciplinary bedside rounds are an essential opportunity to facilitate patient-centered care. Our medical-surgical units did not have a standardized approach to ensuring consistent, clear [...]

Background: The ACGME identifies care transitions as both a core competency and focus area for the Clinical Learning Environment Review, but there is a scarcity of literature on standardized curricula designed to teach residents how to facilitate safe discharges. While focusing on the patient as the central locus of the transition is important, an under [...]

Case Presentation: A 22 year-old G1P1000 pregnant woman at 24 weeks presented with hypertensive urgency and newly diagnosed intrauterine growth restriction in the setting of pre-eclampsia. On admission her physical exam and laboratory data were unremarkable. The patient was admitted to maternal fetal medicine for closer fetal monitoring. On hospital day (HD) 9 she began [...]