Background: ED visits increased to 145.59 million in 2016 (CDC 2019), resulting in an increase in hospital admissions. Chen et al. showed a correlation between the overall ED census and likelihood of admission; while, Velasquez et al. found up to 28% of hospitalists reported having admitted patients when no admission criteria were met. They described [...]

Background: Improving a patient’s experience with the health care system improves outcomes of care. Glickman et al found that higher patient satisfaction is associated with improved adherence and lower inpatient mortality rates. Boulding et al found that higher patient satisfaction was associated with lower 30- day readmission rates for patients with heart failure, acute MI [...]

Background: Nurse-physician teamwork is a critical determinant of outcomes among hospitalized patients. Although improvement interventions have been designed for specific settings (eg, intensive care units and operating rooms), less attention has been given to nurse-physician teamwork in hospital medicine. Therefore, our goal was to assess the quality and effectiveness of interventions for improving nurse-physician teamwork [...]

Background: Academic hospitalists engage in multiple and varied career directions, including medical education, quality improvement, leadership, and research. In 2009, the Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM), the Society of General Internal Medicine (SGIM), and the Association of Chiefs and Leaders of General Internal Medicine (ACLGIM) launched the Academic Hospitalist Academy (AHA), an annual conference that [...]

Background: After discharge from an acute care hospitalization, cancer patients may choose to pursue rehabilitative care in a skilled nursing facility (SNF). Our objective was to examine receipt of anti-cancer therapy, death, readmission, and hospice use of cancer patients who discharge to a SNF compared to those who discharge home or home with home health [...]

Background: Sepsis is a leading cause of hospital death and readmission (1-2). Prior work has suggested that early, adequate intravenous fluid (IVF) administration during sepsis care is associated with lower mortality, even among those at risk for fluid overload (including patients with chronic kidney disease [CKD] or heart failure [HF]) (3). At the same time, [...]

Background: Each year, 14 million Americans are diagnosed with HPV and 33,700 Americans are diagnosed with a cancer caused by HPV. The HPV vaccination can prevent 92% of these cancers. In 2018 only 42.74% of adolescents in Wisconsin ages 13-18 had completed the HPV series and only 56.47% had received the first dose. Hospitalization represents [...]

Background: The use of imaging is highly prevalent in hospitalized patients with about two images performed on every hospitalized patient (Levin et al). While imaging is utilized for specific indications, incidental findings are common with 45.0% of chest CTs resulting in incidentalomas (O’Sullivan et al). Lack of appropriate follow up to incidental findings (IFs) leads [...]

Background: Overuse of non-ICU continuous adult cardiac (telemetry) monitoring is a well-documented problem that can lead to increase hospital cost, alarm desensitization, nursing time loss, and patient discomfort 1,2. Previous studies assessing reduction of inappropriate telemetry use have employed a combination of electronic health record (EHR) order, nursing protocol changes, intensive educational, and/or feedback initiatives [...]

Background: Observation status was designed to reduce health care costs for patients in need of short hospital stays. CMS suggests that observation care should typically require less than 24 hours, and only rarely last more than 48 hours. However, studies suggest that length of stay for observation patients is often longer than CMS guidance.[1,2] An [...]