Background: Executing safe transitions of care for hospitalized patients is important because of the vulnerability of patients during this time period.  While hospital-based providers frequently schedule appointments on behalf of their patients prior to discharge, cancellations and non-attendance (“no-shows”) for post-discharge follow-up appointments are anecdotally common and diminish the quality  of patient care.  Little is [...]

Background: Executing safe transitions of care for hospitalized patients is important because of the vulnerability of patients during this time period.  While hospital-based providers frequently schedule appointments on behalf of their patients prior to discharge, cancellations and non-attendance (“no-shows”) for post-discharge follow-up appointments are anecdotally common and diminish the quality  of patient care.  Little is [...]

Background: One way academic organizations recognize staff achievements and scholarly activities is through four levels of academic appointments: Instructor, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor and Professor. Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants (NPPAs) employed by the Mayo Clinic are highly encouraged to pursue an academic appointment. A 2016 survey at our three main sites showed that only [...]

Background:  Most patient discharges(DC) from hospitals occur in the afternoons, thus creating patient flow and potentially patient safety issues. This creates increased ER boarding hours and delays interunit patient transfers between ICU, stepdown and medical units. Sick patients may not be getting the appropriate level of care due to lack of higher level of care beds. Purpose:  To increase [...]

Background: Transitioning patient care between hospitals and skilled nursing facilities (SNFS) brings many challenges.  Patient and family anxiety, unfamiliarity and even misinformation about SNFs increase the opportunity for unsatisfactory outcomes and readmissions to the hospital..  Previous research has demonstrated frequent and potentially harmful medication discrepancies during hospital to nursing home transitions, and low frequency of [...]

Background: The 30-day readmission rate is a key performance indicator for hospitals and hospitalist groups alike. Studies have reported a correlation between scheduling follow-up appointments and reduced readmission rates in specific patient populations (e.g. Heart Failure, COPD). However, evidence regarding the effectiveness of scheduling post-discharge appointments in general medicine patients has been mixed. Methods: We [...]

Background: At our medical center, there are 14,716 discharges annually from the general medicine services. Post discharge appointments are made by residents, nurse practitioners, and hospitalists. In a baseline survey, clinicians identified logistical barriers to successfully making appointments and revealed that patients are rarely involved in scheduling discharge appointments. Only an estimated 66% of attempted [...]

Background: Unplanned readmissions in the U.S. healthcare system cost over $15 billion annually, a burden that increasingly impacts health systems as more patients transition to fully capitated models [1-2]. Despite evidence supporting the protective effect of post-hospitalization visits with primary care providers (PCPs), patient completion rates of these visits remain low [3-5]. Barriers include provider [...]

Background: One way academic organizations recognize staff achievements and scholarly activities is through four levels of academic appointments (AA): Instructor, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and Professor.1 Nurse Practitioners (NPs) and Physician Assistants (PAs) employed by the Mayo Clinic are highly encouraged to pursue AA.1 While NPPAs commonly participate in a wide range of academic activities, [...]