Background: Coordination of inpatient and outpatient care is an important challenge in improving population health but evidence examining the effectiveness of existing care coordination programs is mixed. The Comprehensive Care Physician (CCP) Program at the University of Chicago provides patients at increased risk of hospitalization the opportunity to receive inpatient and outpatient care from the [...]

Background: Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) is typically diagnosed from ultrasound (US) Doppler evaluation and anticoagulation therapy is the standard treatment to prevent life threatening pulmonary embolism (PE). In our hospital, the treating provider is alerted to the positive test result by phone and/or text in the imaging result. There is an absence of clinical decision [...]

Background: While many Hospital Medicine groups employ overnight providers to exclusively care for previously admitted patients (cross-coverage), little data exists regarding factors contributing to the perceived workload of this role. The NASA-Task Load Index (NASA-TLX) is a validated questionnaire used to quantify perceived workload. Methods: Overnight providers completed the NASA-TLX at the end of each [...]

Background: Endoscopies are commonly performed in the inpatient setting, and successful completion frequently requires close coordination among nurses, hospitalists, gastroenterologists, and anesthesiologists. Given the complexity of this multidisciplinary involvement, as well as variability in patient factors like clinical stability and presentation, endoscopies are prone to delays. These delays may cause frustration amongst care providers and [...]

Background: Discharge to post-acute care settings (PACs), such as skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), requires significant, complex discharge planning which often needs to be started early during hospitalization to be complete by time of discharge. This study sought to identify and model factors which predict a given patient’s likelihood of requiring PAC after discharge, using routinely [...]

Background: This is an exciting time for Telemedicine with new programs being implemented across the continuum of care including acute care, post-acute care, and in home settings. Proving the value of telemedicine programs when no access to providers exist is relatively straightforward but proving value of programs where implemented to augment existing care by the [...]

Case Presentation: A 14yo girl presented with syncope and 4 days of URI symptoms. She had no past medical or family history. On presentation, she was hypotensive with mildly elevated lactate, troponin, and BNP, and an unremarkable ECG and chest radiograph. Initial echocardiogram showed normal LV function. Cardiac MRI revealed a pericardial effusion and increased [...]

Case Presentation: After suffering a left-sided middle cerebral artery stroke and subsequent right sided weakness, an 85-year-old female fell and sustained a fracture of her right intertrochanteric femur. She initially had an ORIF at an outside hospital, but this subsequently failed and the patient had continued pain. She had repeat x-ray imaging of her femur [...]

Case Presentation: A 25-year-old woman with a remote history of intravenous drug use, last reported seven months prior, presented with two days of progressive cyanosis and pain of the medial right hand with associated paresthesia, hyperesthesia, and stiffness. Physical exam revealed well-demarcated cyanosis of the fourth, fifth, and medial third digits extending to the wrist [...]

Background: Accurate and timely discharge summaries are critical to safe transitions of hospitalized patients to the outpatient setting and reduce readmissions1–6. However, composing the hospital course (HC) section of the discharge summary is laborious and time consuming, contributing to increased documentation burden7,8, work outside of work9, and clinician burnout10,11. Recent retrospective studies demonstrated that large [...]