Background: Bed-rest is considered essential to recovery. Functional decline in older patients is an often-overlooked riskfactor during hospitalizations. Older patients have higher 30-day readmission rates, more complications,and longer lengths of stay. Increasing the amount of walking in the hospital has been identified as a potentialsolution, with 900 steps per day identified as a target to [...]

Background: Effective discharge planning requires early identification of patients’ post-acute care needs as well as potential barriers to placement. Housestaff receive little formal training on discharge planning and are instead expected to learn “on-the-go”. At the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs (WLAVA) Medical Center there exists many disposition options that aren’t available to our housestaff [...]

Background: Early and sustained mobilization of patients throughout admission is a goal we all strive to achieve. Inpatient immobility leads to the development of medical complications such as pressure ulcers, acute venous thrombosis, nosocomial infections, decreased muscle mass, and overall functional decline. Additionally, patients become deconditioned from their baseline and require potentially preventable additional services [...]