Background: Like all large academic medical centers (AMCs), we face capacity challenges. On most days, bed occupancy is often greater than 90% and long boarding times in the Emergency Department (ED) leads to poor patient experience, care delays and risk for adverse outcomes. While many AMCs have approached this problem by acquiring new facilities or [...]

Background: At all academic medical centers, nurses and resident physicians are two prominent front-line contributors to the care of patients. During a patient’s hospital stay, they receive communication regarding their diagnosis, test results, management, and plan of care from both the resident physicians and the nursing staff. Therefore, it is critical to have effective communication [...]

Background: The traditional role of hospitalists is to provide care to patients hospitalized with acute medical conditions. Over the past few years, this has evolved to improve care transitions and stewardship of hospital resources. Many hospitals may embed hospitalists in the Emergency Department (ED) to improve patient flow into the hospital; however, there are sparse [...]

Background: Clinicians face an overwhelming volume of communication through various channels, including phone calls, text messages, emails, in-person interruptions, and secure messaging systems. This information overload is increasing[1] and poses significant challenges. Despite the availability of communication tools, failures in communication remain the leading cause of preventable medical errors [2]. Secure messaging systems, while essential, [...]

Background: High levels of interprofessional collaboration and communication have been shown to lead to better patient safety outcomes, improved patients’ satisfaction and quality of care, as well as higher job satisfaction for doctors and nurses alike. Yet, challenges to nurse-doctor collaborations exist. One way of improving interprofessional collaboration may be through structured co-teaching by nurses [...]

Background: Like all large academic medical centers (AMCs), we face capacity challenges. On most days, bed occupancy is often greater than 90% and long boarding times in the Emergency Department (ED) leads to poor patient experience, care delays and risk for adverse outcomes. While many AMCs have approached this problem by acquiring new facilities or [...]

Background: At all academic medical centers, nurses and resident physicians are two prominent front-line contributors to the care of patients. During a patient’s hospital stay, they receive communication regarding their diagnosis, test results, management, and plan of care from both the resident physicians and the nursing staff. Therefore, it is critical to have effective communication [...]

Background: Joint leadership- modeled by physician-nurse dyad unit leaders has been a successful leadership structure at our organization for years. Advanced practice providers (APPs) have grown significantly in numbers over the past 10 years and have become critical members of our inpatient healthcare teams. They represent a stable and engaged workforce. In 2016, the nurse-physician [...]

Background: The traditional role of hospitalists is to provide care to patients hospitalized with acute medical conditions. Over the past few years, this has evolved to improve care transitions and stewardship of hospital resources. Many hospitals may embed hospitalists in the Emergency Department (ED) to improve patient flow into the hospital; however, there are sparse [...]

Background: Electronic messages represent a growing proportion of inter-professional team communication in the inpatient setting. Poor communication hinders team collaboration, increases patient readmissions, and may facilitate burnout. Descriptions of inter-provider communications have largely utilized survey data in specialized settings at a single time-point. We sought to characterize in-patient hospital-wide inter-provider communication patterns over a year. [...]