Background: Since 2010, 130 rural hospitals have closed, leaving only 2,250 rural hospitals remaining in the United States. Of the remaining facilities, outmigration and/or the bypassing of the local hospitals to a larger facility remains problematic and impacts a community’s access to healthcare while affecting the long-term business viability of the city. In December of [...]

Background: Hospital readmissions are frequent and can represent low-quality, high-cost care. Timely post-hospital follow-up has been described as an important element of high-quality transitions of care and readmissions prevention (1-3), yet exactly what type of follow-up is most successful is unclear. We sought to understand the relationship between timing, hospital follow-up visit provider specialty and [...]

Background: In a time when rural hospitals across the United States are closing for various reasons and local residents are left with limited access to healthcare, our academic medical center successfully built one of the few new rural facilities in the country and opened it in January 2023. The new hospital is a seventeen bed [...]

Background: Since 2010, 130 rural hospitals have closed, leaving only 2,250 rural hospitals remaining in the United States. Of the remaining facilities, outmigration and/or the bypassing of the local hospitals to a larger facility remains problematic and impacts a community’s access to healthcare while affecting the long-term business viability of the city. In December of [...]

Background: Hospital readmissions are frequent and can represent low-quality, high-cost care. Timely post-hospital follow-up has been described as an important element of high-quality transitions of care and readmissions prevention (1-3), yet exactly what type of follow-up is most successful is unclear. We sought to understand the relationship between timing, hospital follow-up visit provider specialty and [...]

Background: Geriatric and palliative care patients who have been discharged from hospital and are home-limited face challenges in effectively accessing ongoing healthcare and clinical follow-up after being discharged, leaving them at risk for unnecessary re-hospitalization. Health care video visits present a novel opportunity to expand patient access to clinical care remotely in their home, potentially [...]

Background: The patient-physician relationship is influenced by several factors including the environment of care. Given the increased use of telemedicine – catalyzed by the COVID-19 pandemic – understanding preferences for and comfort with telemedicine is important. This study aimed to explore patient preferences for various types of video visit background environments and their effects on [...]

Background: As COVID-19 spread across the globe, hospitals restricted visitors in an attempt to protect patients and healthcare providers. The absence of in-person visitors and loved ones, who play a central role in clinical decision-making by clarifying medical histories, elucidating patients’ baseline status, and bridging linguistic and cultural divides, left patients vulnerable to social isolation, [...]

Background: During the COVID19 pandemic, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and US Department of Health and Human Services liberalized guidelines to allow for broader access to telehealth services. Previously the use of telehealth platforms in hospital and by the hospitalists has been limited. Purpose: Describe rapid implementation of an interprofessional, inpatient, secure telehealth [...]

Background: To address bed capacity concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) waived the certificate of medical necessity for oxygen claims, allowing for reimbursement for oxygen prescribed for patients upon hospital discharge with COVID-19 respiratory illness. This reimbursement allows providers to discharge patients with COVID-19 respiratory illness still [...]