Background: Hospitalists balance efficiency and quality in their daily practice. How a physician’s time management affects care quality is unknown. Accordingly, we aimed to compare the EHR efficiency of hospitalists, as measured by their time spent within the EHR per day, with quality of care, as measured by readmission rates and patient satisfaction. Methods: Data [...]

Background: The high volume of handoffs between the Emergency Department (ED) team and the inpatient team on a daily basis makes this a ripe area for care improvement. Effective, safe and organized transitions facilitate high quality and efficient care, while a dysfunctional process negatively affects patients and practitioners and compounds overall hospital congestion and delays [...]

Background: Morning rounds on inpatient teaching services are a fundamental element of patient care delivery and trainee development. However, overall care and education can be negatively impacted when rounds extend past late morning. Optimal teaching rounds involve balancing the three domains of patient care, education, and operational efficiency. We developed an interdisciplinary workgroup, including residents, [...]

Background: Delivering high quality and efficient care is a top priority at our 800-bed quaternary care hospital. We have seen significant improvements in many patient-care domains by implementing hospital-wide standardized interdisciplinary rounds. As part of our ongoing efforts to further improve efficiency and value, we hope to leverage a simple order in our electronic medical [...]

Background: As of 2017, 96% of non-federal acute care hospitals had an electronic health record (EHR). Hospitalists interact with the EHR for several hours each day. Many studies have suggested a direct correlation between physician burnout and frustrations with the EHR. Data has been published regarding physician time studies in the outpatient setting, but there [...]

Background: As the aging population with multiple comorbidities continues to grow in our country, appropriate resource utilization and efficiency of care remain a priority for many acute care facilities to reduce hospital acquired debility, healthcare costs, and improve patient experience. The physical therapist’s assessment of the patient’s functional capacity plays a crucial role in discharge [...]

Background: Diagnose and treat. That is the role of the physician. But the practice of medicine in recent years has been beaten hollow; its patient mission eclipsed by unwieldy technology and its practitioners so inundated with documentation and data entry, resulting in disengaged, frustrated, and burned out clinicians. The hospitalist has access to the entirety [...]

Background: Identifying discharge barriers, reducing length of stay (LOS) and optimizing the observed over expected (O/E) ratio for LOS are crucial in healthcare management. Addressing obstacles—DME needs, medical issues, diagnostic/procedure delays, administrative hurdles—can streamline discharge, enhancing outcomes, optimizing resources, cutting costs, and improving hospital efficiency. Effective discharge planning, interdisciplinary collaboration, and patient education are vital [...]

Background: Efficient discharge planning is crucial for improving hospital capacity strain and patient care. Multidisciplinary rounds (MDRs) have demonstrated effectiveness in enhancing communication and care coordination, but their impact on resident teaching teams has been less studied. The expected discharge date (EDD), among other key metrics in discharge efficiency, helps predict bed capacity, optimize patient [...]

Background: As a strategy to address its ongoing capacity crisis, our hospital has focused on reducing length of stay and improving throughput. Our hospitalists care for patients on >20 nursing units across four buildings, which creates inefficiencies that may prolong length of stay. Although other institutions have demonstrated improved patient flow by geographically cohorting patients [...]