Journal of hospital medicine : an official publication of the Society of Hospital Medicine
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Prior studies, using limited data from the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) surveys, reported that public reporting increases satisfaction scores in all domains except physician communication. Our objective was to examine changes in patient satisfaction with physician communication using all available data. ⋯ Although there has been an improvement in patient satisfaction with physicians during the past 7 years, this improvement was not seen in all hospitals. The overall gap between hospitals has narrowed, which can be further improved through sharing best practices.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Strategies to engage stakeholders in research to improve acute care delivery.
Many families involved in research are well versed in the care system due to chronic conditions. Engagement of families of children with serious acute illnesses is infrequent, and no studies have documented the feasibility or acceptability of different methods of family engagement. We describe a model used in the Hospital-to-Home Outcomes study, which utilized a novel approach of short-term focused engagement of families and other stakeholders to incorporate the unique viewpoints of families whose care experience is primarily focused around the period surrounding their child's hospitalization for acute illness.
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Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia (SAB) is associated with significant morbidity and mortality in hospitalized adults. ⋯ The processes of care identified in our study could serve as quality and patient safety indicators for the management of SAB.
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Clostridium difficile, a major cause of healthcare-associated diarrhea due to perturbation of the normal gastrointestinal microbiome, is responsible for significant morbidity, mortality, and healthcare expenditures. The incidence and severity of C difficile infection (CDI) is increasing, and recurrent disease is common. Recurrent infection can be difficult to manage with conventional antibiotic therapy. ⋯ The safety and efficacy of FMT in patients with severe primary or severe recurrent CDI has not been established. Patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) who undergo FMT for CDI may be at increased risk of IBD flare, and caution should be exercised with use of FMT in that population. The long-term safety of FMT is unknown; thus, rigorously conducted prospective studies are needed.