Background: Residents are uniquely positioned to learn from and contribute to informatics. As key electronic health record (EHR) users, they offer practical solutions and feedback. Resident informatics engagement promotes EHR proficiency and accelerates implementation of best practices and quality improvement. Understanding how clinical data are structured creates a foundation for future scientific inquiry using clinical [...]

Background: The HCAHPS survey is used nationally by health systems as a standard to measure the patient experience and identify opportunities for improvement. Historically, process improvement initiatives based on the survey are implemented retroactively, attempting to prevent negative experiences for future patients. However, given the increasing complexity of patient care, proactively addressing the identified concerns [...]

Background: There has been ample speculation about potential future applications of natural language processing and related technologies for clinical documentation, and yet the mechanics of clinical documentation have changed very little since the passage of the HITECH Act in 2009. Purpose: While awaiting the integration of more advanced technologies into electronic health records (EHRs), we [...]

Background: Antibiotics are frequently prescribed—and overprescribed—at hospital discharge, leading to adverse-events and patient harm. Antibiotic overuse at discharge varies widely across hospitals, with rates of overuse differing up to 5-fold.(1) Our understanding of what approaches optimize prescribing at discharge is limited. Recently, we published the ROAD (Reducing Overuse of Antibiotics at Discharge) Home Framework which [...]

Background: Clinicians face an overwhelming volume of communication through various channels, including phone calls, text messages, emails, in-person interruptions, and secure messaging systems. This information overload is increasing[1] and poses significant challenges. Despite the availability of communication tools, failures in communication remain the leading cause of preventable medical errors [2]. Secure messaging systems, while essential, [...]

Background: Work engagement has been an ongoing subject of interest within many organizations as it reflects employee well-being and can affect productivity, work outcomes, emotional health, and physical health (1). Stress levels in the work environment can lead to deterioration of sleep and work engagement and increase burnout (2). Heartfulness meditation is a simple heart-based [...]

Background: Diagnostic errors (DEs), or the failure to accurately identify or provide timely explanations of a patient’s health problem, are a significant source of patient harm. DEs occur in up to 23% of adult inpatients who transfer to intensive care units (ICU) or die. Few studies have examined how clinician team composition impacts DE risk. [...]

Background: Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) agonists are increasingly prescribed for obesity and type 2 diabetes, demonstrating efficacy in weight loss and glycemic control [1-3]. Beyond metabolic effects, these medications show protective effects against renal disease progression and reduce major adverse cardiovascular events [4]. GLP-1 agonists influence body composition through effects on both fat mass and fat-free [...]

Background: Frailty is linked to poor outcomes in older patients, especially those with multiple conditions. The electronic frailty index (eFI) is a validated tool based on the cumulative deficit model used to screen hospitalized patients at risk for poor outcomes1. The eFI relies on 35 ICD-10 codes associated with encounters across four domains (morbidity, sensory, [...]

Background: Poor coordination between hospital and outpatient care worsens health outcomes, and increases preventable hospitalization and health care expenditures, especially for socioeconomically disadvantaged populations. Evidence of the effects of current programs to improve care coordination is mixed, and there is little data on how their impact may differ for hospitalizations for ambulatory care-sensitive conditions (ACSCs) [...]