Background: Approximately 1.6 million patients are transferred between hospitals yearly, with disproportionately high cost and mortality. Despite the risk associated with inter-hospital transition of care, there is no established best practice in coordinating and triaging transfers. This gap in knowledge is partly driven by a dearth of studies which integrate clinical data before and after […]

Background: Handoffs are critical to safe and efficient transfer of patient care between hospitalists. While patient handoffs are essential to hospitalist practice, there is great variability in handoff content, preparation, and delivery. Our study aimed to characterize handoff practices at a large academic hospitalist group, which primarily utilizes a written handoff platform. Methods: We conducted […]

Background: Given the shift-based nature of modern hospital medicine, block schedules where physicians are on clinical service for a defined period of time are common place. As such, end-of-service handoffs are a routine element of hospital medicine practice. Like handoffs to an overnight cross-covering physician, end-of-service handoffs pose a risk to patients if critical information […]