Background: Electronic health applications that aim to share personalized medical information with patients are not frequently found in hospital settings. These inpatient applications can empower patients and caregivers to review and monitor their most updated medical information and improve communication between patients and their providers (such as clinicians, nurses, case managers etc.). However, these applications [...]

Background: For most people, music serves as a calming influence or as a pleasurable stimulus that lifts their spirits. Hospitalized patients may experience boredom, fear, and unease while in the hospital, away from the comforts of home during their acute illness. In an attempt to both distract and cheer up hospitalized patients, we designed a [...]

Background: Unexpected overnight adverse events are known to correlate with worse outcomes in inpatients.  Unfortunately, the exact occurrence and etiologies of such events have been less known.    Purpose: The aim of our study was to clarify the occurrence, etiologies of unexpected overnight adverse events and also propose the algorithm so that the catastrophic events [...]

Background: Complex patients represent a challenge in the health care system, as they are frequently associated with high health care utilization, longer hospital stays, and higher costs. Nonetheless, the characteristics of the complex patients in the hospital setting are not well known, and tools to help hospitals to identify them early in the process of [...]

Background: Acute Medical Assessment Units (AMAU) in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand improve inpatient flow and quality. It is critical to spread such best practices. Qatar, a GCC state (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and UAE) has tremendous recent population growth stressing the healthcare system. Hamad General Hospital (HGH), the main national hospital, [...]

Background: Readmissions after hospitalisation are a healthcare quality indicator and carry considerable financial penalties in some healthcare systems. Internationally, readmission rates at 28 – 30 days for medical inpatients range between 10 – 22%. However there is almost no information available around readmissions for medical inpatients in the Middle East region. We conducted a pilot [...]

Decreasing Use of Continuous Pulse Oximetry in Pediatric Inpatients Lavanya G. Shankar, MD, Lurie Children’s at Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital. Abstract Text: Background: Pediatric inpatients with simple respiratory diagnoses and hypoxia do not have clear guidelines on when Continuous Pulse Oximetry (CPO) may be discontinued after initially being placed. As a result, patients who have been [...]

Background: The benefits of early ambulation for patients admitted to a hospital are well recognized. Our hospital has a “Nurse Driven Progressive Mobility Protocol” which is intended to guide bedside practitioners in implementing individualized progressive mobility for patients and includes several items that nurses are required to document. It categorizes patients into 5 mobility levels; [...]

Background: Limited data exist about the magnitude of and the factors associated with one-year mortality of medical patients after their hospital discharge. Factors known during the hospitalization may be associated with high mortality risk. One may also wonder whether healthcare utilization during the first 30 days after discharge are also of any prognostic value for [...]

Background: Hospital overcrowding and extended Emergency Department (ED) wait times are challenges facing most urban hospitals today. There is growing evidence to show that overcrowding in the ED is associated with increased morbidity, mortality and patient dissatisfaction. To improve overcrowding, hospitals have focused on discharge before noon (DBN) as an impactful and sustainable remedy. While [...]