Background: Audit and feedback is a commonly used strategy to improve performance among providers. Most prior studies on its efficacy were done in the outpatient setting and showed a modest benefit. Certain factors, such as clear targets and repeated frequency of feedback may increase the likelihood of improved performance; however, there is still no consensus [...]

Background: In hospital medicine, around 250,000 diagnostic errors occur yearly in American hospitals and a significant proportion are attributed to failures in clinical reasoning. Feedback on the diagnostic process has been proposed as one method of improving clinical reasoning. However, in the current healthcare system barriers to the delivery and receipt of feedback include limited [...]

Background: Audit and feedback is a commonly used strategy to improve performance among providers. Most prior studies on its efficacy were done in the outpatient setting and showed a modest benefit. Certain factors, such as clear targets and repeated frequency of feedback may increase the likelihood of improved performance; however, there is still no consensus [...]

Background: In hospital medicine, around 250,000 diagnostic errors occur yearly in American hospitals and a significant proportion are attributed to failures in clinical reasoning. Feedback on the diagnostic process has been proposed as one method of improving clinical reasoning. However, in the current healthcare system barriers to the delivery and receipt of feedback include limited [...]

Background: There is minimal automated electronic feedback to hospitalists about their level of service in professional billing. Based on today’s payor requirements for inpatient admission, the medical decision-making involved in the care of inpatients almost always justifies a level of service above level 1. However, encounters may still receive level 1 due to under-documentation (e.g. [...]

Background: The Hospitalist Division at Washington University in St. Louis provides coverage for multiple different services at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. At the present time, there are a total of 68 MDs and 6 NPs caring for greater than 100 patients on a daily basis. Our main Hospital Medicine service is comprised of 11 different Hospitalist attending [...]

Background: Medical errors in hospitals are a significant threat to patient safety and often result from poor communication or poorly-activated interprofessional teams. Despite a recent focus on interprofessional education (IPE) in pre-clinical years and simulation settings, formal curricula for teaching medical trainees interprofessional communication and teamwork skills in clinical settings are lacking. Purpose: To create [...]

Background: Hospitalists play an essential role in educating residents on inpatient rotations. One critical way to ensure the success of trainees is to provide timely feedback and written evaluations, which may be difficult amidst conflicting tasks. Hospitalists face additional challenges with the large volume of learners to supervise, and with irregular resident schedules and frequent [...]

Background: Increased fragmentation of inpatient medical care requires hospitalists to frequently hand off their patients to other providers. Communication breakdown during transitions of care is a major cause of adverse events. Direct observation of handoff encounters and performance feedback can help providers develop the skills needed to safely transition patients across the health system and [...]

Background: Academic hospitalists have identified teaching learners as the most fulfilling aspect of their jobs. Components of effective clinical education include teaching at the bedside and giving feedback. To enhance and develop the teaching and professional developmental skills of early-career hospitalists, the Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM), the Society of General Internal Medicine (SGIM), and [...]