Background: Research suggests that ambulation in hospital settings can help prevent functional decline in patients. Early ambulation also contributes to better patient outcomes and decreased length of stay. The purpose of this study is to investigate patient perspectives to learn about factors that influence early ambulation and recommended amount of ambulation while in the hospital. [...]

Background: Since the roll out of the Affordable Care Act in 2012 there has been an increased financial pressure to prevent 30-day hospital readmissions. Yet the readmissions rate has remained relatively unchanged despite myriad of health system interventions have been trialed. To approach this issue from a new perspective we decided to query the patient’s [...]

Background: Hospitalization can be overwhelming for patients. Diagnostic uncertainty is common, and patients interact with many professionals who present information that may seem confusing. We bring a design thinking perspective to creating more patient-responsive hospital care, allowing their stories to drive the creation of a human-centered experience. Design thinking is about understanding needs and generating [...]

Background: Hospital readmission is detrimental and is often a consequence of patient vulnerabilities, social factors and inadequate health system safeguards. The current 30-day readmission rate for Internal Medicine patients at the University Hospital is 13.43%. Historically, little has been known about patients’ perspective on factors that contributed to their readmission. Previous studies have shown that [...]