Journal of hospital medicine : an official publication of the Society of Hospital Medicine
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To examine the impact of hospital-onset Clostridium difficile infection (HOCDI) on the outcomes of patients with sepsis. ⋯ After rigorous adjustment for time to diagnosis and presenting severity, hospital-acquired Clostridium difficile infection was associated with increased mortality, LOS, and cost. Our results can be used to assess the cost-effectiveness of prevention programs and suggest that efforts directed toward high-risk patient populations are needed.
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Although patient flow is a focus for improvement in hospitals, commonly used single or unaggregated measures fail to capture its complexity. Composite measures can account for multiple dimensions of performance but have not been reported for the assessment of patient flow. ⋯ A patient flow scorecard with composite measurement holds advantages over a single or unaggregated measurement system, because it provides a holistic assessment of performance while also identifying specific areas in need of improvement.
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The clinical learning model in medical education is driven by knowledge acquisition through direct patient-care experiences. Despite the emphasis on experiential learning, the ability of educators to quantify the clinical exposures of learners is limited. ⋯ Analysis of the clinical exposures during an inpatient rotation can augment the ability of educators to understand learners' experiences. These types of analyses could provide information to improve learner experience, implement novel curricula, and address educational gaps in clinical rotations.