Background: Frailty is a clinical syndrome characterized by vulnerability to stressors resulting from a loss of physiological reserve across multiple systems. Frailty is a common condition in older adults and is associated with disability, morbidity, increased healthcare utilization, and mortality. Frailty assessments derive from two major frameworks: the frailty phenotype and the deficit accumulation model. [...]

Background: Diagnostic errors (DE) – defined as incorrect, missed, or delayed diagnoses not made within a timeframe consistent with standard clinical practice – are common and can lead to harm, especially in acute care settings. One cause of DEs is suboptimal clinical reasoning in the diagnostic process. Electronic clinical documentation has been suggested to potentially [...]

Background: To date, attempts at estimating diagnostic error (DE), as defined as missed, incorrect, or delayed diagnoses, have focused on the identification of all types of adverse events, not specifically DE. Retrospectively identifying and ascertaining DE for hospitalized patients has been further challenged by (1) variability in operational definitions of DE; (2) use of non-standardized [...]

Background: Acute otitis media (AOM) is a commonly overtreated pediatric diagnosis. Since 2014, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has recommended a ‘wait-and-see’ strategy and shorter antibiotic courses for mild or moderate AOM in qualifying patients. While this strategy has been successfully implemented in some pediatric emergency units (EUs), studies have shown that 30-90% of [...]

Background: Timely discharge of medically-ready patients from acute care hospitalization can reduce strain on hospital resources and limit patient exposure to iatrogenic harm [1-2]. The smooth transition of these patients to post-acute care has been critical during the COVID-19 pandemic to increase acute care bed availability and reduce the potential of hospital-based viral transmission [3]. [...]