Journal of hospital medicine : an official publication of the Society of Hospital Medicine
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Patient satisfaction is typically measured by quantitative surveys using predetermined domains. However, dissatisfaction may be an entity distinct from satisfaction, may have different determinants, and may better reflect problems in healthcare delivery. ⋯ The results represent patient-generated priorities for quality improvement in healthcare. These priorities are not all consistently represented in standard patient satisfaction surveys and quality improvement initiatives. Patient input is critical to assessing the quality of hospital care and to identifying areas for improvement.
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While the impact of hospitalists on length of stay (LOS) for inpatient medicine services has been studied, there has been little work on the impact of hospitalist involvement in short-stay or observation units. ⋯ Implementation of a hospitalist-run observation unit was associated with a significantly decreased LOS for all patients regardless of location, suggesting that the unit has led to more efficient care.
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Communication between clinicians is hampered by the frequent difficulty in reaching the most responsible physician for a patient as well as the use of outdated methods such as numeric paging. The aim of this study was to evaluate the use of smartphones to improve communication on internal medicine wards. ⋯ When smartphones were used for clinical communication, residents perceived an improvement in communication with them. Residents strongly preferred emails as opposed to telephone calls as the prime method of communication. Further objective evaluation is necessary to determine if this intervention improves efficiency and more importantly, quality of care.