Background: As a result of COVID-19, clinical care across the U.S. has changed with virtual services becoming the new normal in many clinics.1-5 How these changes impact patient care following hospitalization is unclear as data are limited.6 We report on characteristics and rates of clinic follow up and satisfaction with care in patients discharged during [...]

Background: Discharge planning should begin at the time of admission and involve preparing patients for the transition out of the hospital. Unfortunately, many hospitalized patients disagree with their provider about their discharge plan, including what needs to be accomplished in the hospital or the dismissal’s timing and location. When patients and their providers do not [...]

Background: Many institutions rely on informal training for internal medicine (IM) residents about how to provide effective discharge communication to patients and their caregivers. Complete instructions are essential to safe transitions of care. At our institution, we evaluated baseline knowledge of these topics among IM residents, and assessed how an educational module impacted residents’ knowledge, [...]

Background: Community acquired pneumonia (CAP) is one of the leading causes of hospitalization in the United States.[1] In an effort to improve the quality of care for this resource-intensive disease, our institution implemented a clinical decision support (CDS) pathway for CAP comprised of three phases: (1) education on best practices, (2) education and a CDS [...]

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]. [...]

Background: Hospital discharges represent an important transition of care between the inpatient and outpatient setting. Discharge summary documentation enables providers to convey clinical reasoning and important updates in patient care; however, reviews of these documents suggest error rates as high as 36.4% (1.42 errors per document) (McMillen, et. al. 2006). Formalized resident discharge summary curricula [...]

Background: Prolonged lengths of stay (PLOS) on general internal medicine wards are associated with increased mortality and morbidity for patients and represent a costly source of health care spending [1]. Increasingly, nonmedical barriers to discharge, including the need for guardianship, limited facility options, and lack of home support are recognized as contributors to PLOS in [...]

Background: Care of the pediatric patient does not end after the family exits the hospital doors. Post-discharge issues can lead to significant consternation for families, unnecessary risk to the patient, and re-utilization of healthcare resources. Despite careful preparation for transfer of care to the primary care physician (PCP), some post-discharge issues are unanticipated and lead [...]

Background: Prioritizing hospital discharges to improve throughput and safety is a common theme in hospital systems. More recently, there has been an increasing importance placed on early discharges. Earlier discharges help to improve flow for admitted patients through the emergency department. In addition, by expediting patient care, patients are able to have their questions answered [...]

Background: As a result of COVID-19, clinical care across the U.S. has changed with virtual services becoming the new normal in many clinics.1-5 How these changes impact patient care following hospitalization is unclear as data are limited.6 We report on characteristics and rates of clinic follow up and satisfaction with care in patients discharged during [...]