Background: Acute kidney injury (AKI) is common in adult hospitalized patients, with the incidence being reported as high as 7.2%. While evaluation of the cause of AKI is often necessary, in hospitalized patients the causes of AKI are more likely to be pre-renal or intrinsic. Previous studies have found that decreased renal perfusion, medications, radiographic [...]

Background: With 81% of Americans having access to smartphones (1) and 58% using the internet for health related questions (2), there is a need for online resources to prepare patients and families for common experiences in the inpatient setting. The creation of Web based sites for patients and caregivers, such as TheHospitalizedPatient.com, attempts to fill [...]

Background: Healthcare organizations are increasingly seeking to improve physician well-being to combat rates of physician burnout. The Stanford Wellness Framework details a multi-pronged solution which includes three domains: personal resilience, culture of wellness, and efficiency of practice. Enhanced communication skills can improve patient-provider relationships and foster personal resilience, while improving efficiency in practice and contributing [...]

Background: Effective nurse-physician communication is imperative to safe, patient-centered care. Poor communication can lead to adverse events, ranging from near misses to patient deaths. It is important for information to be accurate and timely. In addition to patient safety, there are financial implications to poor communication. According to a 2015 study, communication failures in the [...]

Background: As our healthcare system shifts towards a patient satisfaction model, programs focusing on improving physician communication skills have been on the rise. Many of these programs have focused on outpatient providers as it can be more difficult to capture provider-patient communication in the inpatient setting. Most of the patient feedback obtained for inpatient providers [...]

Background: Timely and efficient communication between pharmacists and physician providers in the hospital setting is integral to patient care. Inpatient care involves discussions regarding medication dosing, timing, contraindications, side-effect surveillance, and medication reconciliation during admission and discharge, often requiring pharmacy consultation. The current system of communication in our institution relies on electronic pages to be [...]

Background: Late afternoon hospital discharges contribute to admission delays, leading to occupancy increase and increased length of stay. However, prominent workplace barriers often exist towards improvement initiatives that target early discharge. Team members cite timing of rounds, absence of early discharge support resources, communication breakdowns, and increased daytime admission volume as barriers to change. Furthermore, [...]

Background: There is often little communication across inpatient medicine teams at a busy academic medical center. Although teams comprise trainees across many levels, individual teams often work in parallel without relating shared challenges and experiences. This can be isolating, and practicing in such silos can propagate systems issues and contribute to burn out. Purpose: Create [...]

Background: Choroidal melanoma, the most common primary intraocular malignancy in adults, is a dangerous cancer which can lead to blindness. Diagnosed at an average age of 65 & lacking identifiable environmental or genetic factors, melanoma of the eye can affect anyone. Commonly found on routine ophthalmological screening, patients are sent to quaternary hospitals for further [...]

Background: Procedures, both inpatient and outpatient, are an essential part of the training for family medicine residents. Several residency programs struggle to provide the minimum number of procedures for residents to develop competency and comfort with the said procedures. Hospitalists do offer increased experience with procedures, although more recently, hospitalists are also referring most procedures [...]