Background: Patient evaluation of satisfaction with their physician has been utilized for several years and is now being included as a parameter utilized to calculate reimbursement. Despite the routine use of these evaluations by most hospitals and agencies, little research has been done to evaluate the metrics of patient evaluations. We sought to assess whether [...]

Background: The 2016 State of Hospital Medicine report showed that the average hospitalist compensation model is composed of 80% base pay, 15% productivity, and 5% performance. Much variation exists by region in the make-up of the performance component with a rise in measures focused on patient satisfaction and readmission and significant differences in weight given [...]

Background: As patient satisfaction surveys become a routine part of physician performance evaluations, it is increasingly important to study the tools that are utilized to evaluate this performance. Little research has been performed to assess the metrics of these tools. Top box percentage is frequently used to report physician performance but the relationship of top [...]

Background: Patient surveys are frequently utilized to assess patient satisfaction with physician performance. These surveys often impact provider evaluations and may even effect reimbursement and employment. Patient satisfaction surveys often have several questions designed to assess distinct aspects of physician performance. Institutions may select specific questions for their individual performance measures rather than all results. [...]

Background: Warfarin-associated adverse drug events are dangerous, common, and costly. Anticoagulation safety is a national priority. While multiple tools exist for warfarin management in the outpatient setting, there is a dearth of guidance with regard to inpatient management. This study aims to: 1) describe a health system’s inpatient chronic warfarin quality metrics, defined by International [...]

Background: Closing the gap between evidence-supported antibiotic use and prescribing patterns among clinicians is a vital component of curbing excessive antibiotic use, a practice that fosters antimicrobial resistance and exposes patients to the side effects of antimicrobial agents. Providing medication prescribing information via scorecard has been shown to improve clinician adherence to quality metrics in [...]

Background: Despite widespread awareness of best practices in the early management of sepsis, sepsis continues to burden our healthcare systems with high mortality, prolonged length of stay and excessive cost.  Early recognition of sepsis and adherence to evidence-based initial resuscitation protocols is known to reduce both mortality and costs associated with care.  In 2013, a [...]

Background: Length of stay (LOS) is a key metric that hospitals follow closely for quality and operational purposes. Hospital Medicine groups frequently use LOS to evaluate their providers and to identify opportunities for improvement; however, the most appropriate methods to apply specific hospital encounters to individual providers is debated. Complex schemes of weighted Observed to [...]

Background: A “safe” hospitalist workload – that is, the point at which caring for too many patients leads to poorer outcomes for each individual patient – has not been defined.  We sought to understand whether the workload of a resident-run inpatient team, measured by number of orders entered into the electronic medical record, was associated [...]

Background: Hospital Medicine is a young and growing specialty. About 50% of our academic hospital medicine group of nearly 70 physicians are in their first 5 years out of residency. And about 90% of our faculty are millennials (born 1982-2000), the fastest-growing generation in the workforce and the first generation to grow up in a [...]