Background: In 2011, ~3.3 million adult 30-day US hospital readmissions generated $41.3 billion in hospital costs. $8.26 billion (20%) of this was considered preventable. Numerous studies demonstrate relationships between hospital readmissions and social determinants of health (SDoH). Lack of education, socioeconomic status, and lack of social support have all been cited as core contributors to […]

Case Presentation: A 77‐year‐old African American man with no significant medical history was admitted for progressive memory loss and confusion. A CT without contrast was performed as part of the dementia workup, which showed bilateral parietal lobe masses versus venous infarcts. CT with contrast and MRI were performed, which were unable to differentiate mass from […]

Background: Effective teams share common attitudes, behaviors, and cognitions that support teamwork. Within patient safety literature, effective teamwork is a core feature of interventions that reduce adverse events. However, research on teamwork in healthcare has focused on teams of healthcare professionals and has not examined how patients and their family caregivers experience teamwork as part […]

Case Presentation: A 50‐year‐old woman with Down syndrome mental disability presented with acute confusion and diarrhea. She was hypotensive, tachycardic, and in acute renal failure. Patient was admitted to the ICU for septic shock secondary to urinary tract infection and C. difficile colitis. Blood and urine cultures grew Providencia, and she was treated with appropriate […]

Case Presentation: A 57‐year‐old man presented to the emergency room with complaints of dysphagia and midsternal chest discomfort after he ate a big lump of steak and felt it stuck in his throat. Chest discomfort was nonradiating with no aggravating or relieving factors. He complained of nausea and 2 episodes of nonbloody vomiting consisting of […]

Background: In a learning healthcare system, data collected as part of routine care is used to fuel innovation and improvement. Predictive models for post-discharge adverse events have relied on data that is available prior to hospital discharge. Post-discharge care (e.g. appointments, phone calls) can be collected from electronic health records and may impact patient risk […]

Background: Patients with limited English proficiency (LEP) face barriers communicating with their medical providers and understanding their treatment plans. Prior work shows that communication barriers limit LEP patients’ understanding of their discharge instructions. However, little is known about disparities in outcomes between LEP and English proficient (EP) patients. To address this gap, we measured the […]

Case Presentation: A 29‐year‐old African American woman presented to the emergency room complaining of dyspnea on exertion and orthopnea of 2 weeks' duration. Her symptoms progressed gradually over this period and worsened to include paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnea prior to admission. She also complained of chest pressure and nonproductive cough. She denied diaphoresis, night sweats, palpitations, […]