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: Falls are associated with significant morbidity and increased healthcare expenses for hospitalized patients. There are hundreds of thousands of inpatient falls every year. There are multiple validated scores to guide the need of imaging for patients presenting to ED after, but no such score exists for hospitalized patients who suffer a fall event. This [...]

Background: There is evidence that physicians consider a variety of “non-medical” factors (e.g. lack of social support, barriers to access) in hospital admission decision-making out of concern for patient safety, and that patients are hospitalized even in the absence of a level of medical acuity warranting admission. The rationale underlying this decision may overvalue the [...]

Background: Adverse events (AEs) occur in 19-28% of hospitalized patients in the 30 days after discharge [1,2]. Though new or worsening symptoms (NWS) reported by patients are often an early indicator of post-discharge AEs, they are not systematically captured in electronic health record (EHR) documentation or via patient portals. Higher fidelity capture of patient-reported NWS [...]

Background: Adverse events (AE) are common during care transitions (19-28%) in patients with multiple chronic conditions (MCC) and often lead to unanticipated healthcare resource utilization after discharge. While early indicators of these AEs include new and worsening symptoms, systematic monitoring of patient-reported symptoms is lacking. The 21st Century Cures Act mandates the healthcare industry to [...]

Background: Timely, effective follow-up after hospital discharge can improve the efficiency and outcomes of care by increasing hospital throughput and decreasing readmissions and other adverse events after discharge. The University of Chicago Medical Center (UCMC) has chronic bed shortages and a medically and socially complex patient population that makes optimal management of post-discharge care especially [...]

Background: Adverse events (AEs) occur in 19-28% of patients after discharge and can lead to unanticipated events, including emergency room visits and readmissions.(1,2) While early indicators include new and worsening symptoms (NWS), monitoring of patient-reported NWS is lacking. The 21st Century Cures Act mandates adoption of application programming interfaces (APIs), offering the potential to engage [...]

Case Presentation: A 71-year-old woman with poorly differentiated squamous cell carcinoma (SCCA) of the left cheek with recent initiation of nivolumab therapy presented to the Emergency Department with five days of bilateral thigh pain, generalized weakness, and dyspnea. The exam was remarkable for tachycardia, hypotension, tachypnea as well as neck and proximal muscle strength weakness. [...]

Case Presentation: This case describes a 63-year-old male who was recently diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma with metastasis to the lungs confirmed with a biopsy showing diffuse PAX-8 positivity on an immunohistochemical staining panel favoring renal origin. He was started on Nivolumab/Ipilimumab however was hospitalized in the intensive care unit for septic shock due to [...]

Case Presentation: A 66-year-old female with metastatic small cell lung cancer involving brain, liver, and bones was admitted via ED with generalized weakness, mild confusion, and decreased oral intake for 3 days. She was initiated on immunotherapy with immune checkpoint inhibitors, ipilimumab (human cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen 4 (CTLA-4)-blocking antibody) and nivolumab (a programmed death receptor-1 [...]