Background: Mortality prediction models are increasingly being adopted in the clinical setting, both to retrospectively assess quality of care and to prospectively inform clinical practice. An open question is whether a particular hospital should employ a model trained using a diverse nationwide dataset or use a model developed primarily from local data. The Veterans Affairs [...]

Background: Assessing severity of illness using available electronic medical record (EMR) data on admission and predicting inpatient mortality is very challenging. Lacking standardized practices around end of life issues, hospitalists use their clinical judgment in making these crucial decisions. Prolonged discussions may be needed in medically complex patients to direct an optimal plan of care [...]

Background: Mortality prediction models are increasingly being adopted in the clinical setting, both to retrospectively assess quality of care and to prospectively inform clinical practice. An open question is whether a particular hospital should employ a model trained using a diverse nationwide dataset or use a model developed primarily from local data. The Veterans Affairs [...]

Background: Hospital readmissions among HIV positive patients are high, and reducing 30-day readmissions is a priority of health systems and payers. Improved communication in the hospital may help decrease readmissions. Our objective was to determine the association between satisfaction with provider communication and 30-day readmissions among HIV positive patients. Methods: We performed a cross-sectional analysis [...]

Background: Hospital at home (HaH) programs have shown efficacy as substitutes for high-cost, traditional hospitalization in patients who are primarily low-acuity and with a range of medical conditions, including community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) and urinary tract infection (UTI). However, wide-spread adoption is minimal as providers and patients are challenged to consider HaH at the time of [...]

Background: Prior exposure to antibiotics is associated with a subsequent risk for sepsis (Baggs et al., 2018). However, there are limited data on characteristics of patients readmitted with sepsis following previous antibiotic exposure during a non-sepsis related hospitalization. We sought to characterize factors associated with sepsis-related readmission (SRR) within 30 days of a non-sepsis index [...]

Background: Oncology comanagement of hospitalized cancer patients is increasingly common. We (1) and others (2-4) have previously demonstrated that when compared with traditional oncologist-only staffing, hospitalist co-management can improve on well-recognized quality outcomes including length of stay, early discharge rates and 30-day readmission rates. Yet, the composition of an oncology hospitalist practice is incompletely understood [...]

Background: Heart failure (HF) hospital readmissions are a leading cause of US 30-day hospital readmissions. Factors related to clinical complexity and unmet social needs are among the key drivers associated with HF negative clinical outcomes. Digital platforms have shown promise in improving HF outcomes but limitations like patient lack of familiarity with technology and unmet [...]

Background: Since the roll out of the Affordable Care Act in 2012 there has been an increased financial pressure to prevent 30-day hospital readmissions. Yet the readmissions rate has remained relatively unchanged despite myriad of health system interventions have been trialed. To approach this issue from a new perspective we decided to query the patient’s [...]

Background: Congestive heart failure (CHF) is a major cause of mortality and morbidity among general population despite recent advancements in goal-directed therapies. The advent of mechanical circulatory devices, the increased availability and improvement in heart transplant techniques have improved some metrics; however, CHF patients continue to have multiple readmissions for acute exacerbations. The frequency of [...]