Background: Electronic Health Records (EHR) systems are broadly used to support the delivery of patient care and to facilitate communication and coordination among providers.  The use of EHR has been demonstrated to improve health care quality and efficiency. However, the impact of how providers utilize EHRs and communicate information in care delivery remains unclear. Specifically, how do [...]

Background: Multidisciplinary rounding (MDR) is a necessary component to safe and effective patient care and discharge during hospitalization. However, there are many barriers to daily MDR that can limit the effectiveness of the team. An interdisciplinary needs assessment of MDR at our institution revealed poor communication on plan of care and limited understanding of interdisciplinary [...]

Background: The hospital setting can be stressful for both patients and providers. The lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic such as staffing shortages, hospital overcrowding, and provider burnout have only exacerbated this problem. In 2023, we undertook a study aimed at improving the wellness of both patients and providers. Data gathered from this study will [...]

Background: TeamSTEPPS (Strategies and Tools to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety) has been shown to improve patient safety by improving teamwork and communication skills amongst all members of the interdisciplinary team. Methods: We developed a 4-hour TeamSTEPPS multi-disciplinary training session, conducted in our simulation center. We invited 90 core members of the medicine service to [...]

Background: ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) is a cardiac emergency that requires timely reperfusion preferably with cardiac catheterization. The coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV2), has adversely impacted the delivery of healthcare to patients with STEMI. Several process changes were observed across the world during this period, including alternative cardiac [...]

Background: Quality and patient safety initiatives are often role-specific with minimal emphasis on cross-discipline collaboration and communication. Prior to project implementation, each discipline’s patient care plans were made in silos without an aligned emphasis on quality and safety initiatives. With implementation of a daily interdisciplinary safety brief based on a shared mental model, our aim [...]

Background: Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a leading cause of preventable in-hospital mortality and a primary focus of quality improvement/patient safety efforts. VTE prophylaxis reduces the incidence of in-hospital VTE, but nonadministration rates—primarily attributed to patient refusal—often reach 10-15%. Notably, nonadministration of VTE prophylaxis may correlate with higher incidence of hospital acquired VTE. Prior studies showed [...]

Background: At Barnes-Jewish Hospital/Washington University residency programs, non-internal medicine interns undergo a significant portion of their training via the Hospitalist Medicine Division to fulfill their ACGME requirement of inpatient internal medicine. The hospitalist schedule is a 7-on and 7-off rotation, resulting in new attendings each week for both supervising direct patient care and leading intern [...]

Background: The care management and discharge planning of psychiatric patients experiencing homelessness (PPEH) is an area of debate. Due to the lack of research on best practices and community resources available, there are currently insufficient actionable guidelines in place to properly assist PPEH in their psychiatric care post-discharge, leading to high rates of readmission. Though [...]

Background: The 2001 Institute of Medicine Report Crossing the Quality Chasm cited a lack of care coordination as a contributing factor to the “chasm” between evidence-based and delivered care and suggests team-based models of care delivery. Hospitalists are tasked with increasing efficiency in inpatient care. LOS is designated as a measure of care coordination and [...]