Background: Delirium is associated with increased morbidity, mortality and health care costs in the hospital setting secondary to increased length of stay and poor long term outcomes (1,2). A systematic review of different delirium prediction models found limitations with these models including derivation from small patient populations, lack of heterogeneity, accuracy and reliability as noted […]

Background: Handoffs between care providers present opportunities for communication errors that can adversely affect patient care. Inadequate handoffs have been associated with problems with assessment and diagnosis, medication errors, and decreased patient satisfaction in acute care settings. We routinely use protocols for transfers of care that occur within the hospital that include verbal communication between […]

Background: It has been recently shown that patients admitted at night and during the weekend have worse mortality outcomes. The impact of those variables on other important outcomes such as length of stay (LOS) and readmission is less clear. We sought to analyze this relationship in a large cohort of inpatients. Methods: We performed a […]

Background: Optimizing transitions of care (TOCs) has become a clear focus of national health care goals. The discharge (DC) summary is arguably the most important document in the TOC for a hospitalized patient. Ideally, it serves as a summary of the patient's hospital course and discharge diagnoses and serves as a handoff to the next […]

Case Presentation: A 68‐year‐old woman was initially diagnosed with metastatic rectal adenocarcinoma in 2009. She received chemoradiation at that time with excellent response. 2 years after her initial diagnosis, she developed metastatic recurrence in her mediastinal, hilar, and supraclavicular lymph nodes with an increasing CEA level. She was reinitiated on chemotherapy at that time. Three […]

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 […]