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: Poor communication among providers is a barrier to seamless transitions in patient care. This problem is compounded when patients undergo interhospital transfer (IHT), where complex patients are transferred between providers, settings and healthcare systems. Templated notes have been used in other hospital-based care transitions to improve communication but have not been widely utilized during [...]

Background: Interhospital transfer is a necessary part of patient care in an increasingly complex healthcare environment. However, it is an ill-defined process that has been associated with increased mortality, cost, and length of stay, even after disease severity adjustment. Purpose: We aim to describe the triage process for interhospital transfer requests at a large, urban [...]

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: 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: When patients are transferred between hospitals (interhospital transfer, IHT), incomplete information exchange between electronic health records (EHRs) poses a barrier to continuity of care. As a result, diagnostic tests may be repeated after transfer, exposing patients to additional risk and adding to costs of care. Shared clinical data between EHRs presents a possible solution. [...]