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: Poor communication among providers is a barrier to seamless transitions in patient care. This problem is compounded when patients undergo interhospital transfer (IHT), where complex patients are transferred between providers, settings and healthcare systems. Templated notes have been used in other hospital-based care transitions to improve communication but have not been widely utilized during [...]