Journal of hospital medicine : an official publication of the Society of Hospital Medicine
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Little is known about how changes in health care delivery, such as the use of hospitalists, have impacted inpatient continuity. ⋯ Hospitalized patients are experiencing less continuity than 10 years ago. The hospitalist model of care does not appear to play a role in this discontinuity.
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To quantify the difference in weekday versus weekend occupancy, and the opportunity to smooth inpatient occupancy to reduce crowding at children's hospitals. ⋯ Hospitals do have substantial unused capacity, and smoothing occupancy over the course of a week could be a useful strategy that hospitals can use to reduce crowding and protect patients from crowded conditions.
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Comparative Study
Hospital performance trends on national quality measures and the association with Joint Commission accreditation.
Evaluations of the impact of hospital accreditation have been previously hampered by the lack of nationally standardized data. One way to assess this impact is to compare accreditation status with other evidence-based measures of quality, such as the process measures now publicly reported by The Joint Commission and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). ⋯ While Joint Commission-accredited hospitals already outperformed non-accredited hospitals on publicly reported quality measures in the early days of public reporting, these differences became significantly more pronounced over 5 years of observation. Future research should examine whether accreditation actually promotes improved performance or is a marker for other hospital characteristics associated with such performance. Journal of Hospital Medicine 2011;6:458-465. © 2011 Society of Hospital Medicine.
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Multicenter Study Comparative Study
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation training of family members before hospital discharge using video self-instruction: a feasibility trial.
Bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is a crucial therapy for sudden cardiac arrest (SCA), yet rates of bystander CPR are low. This is especially the case for SCA occurring in the home setting, as family members of at-risk patients are often not CPR trained. ⋯ The hospital setting offers a unique "point of capture" to provide CPR instruction to an important, undertrained population in contact with at-risk individuals.
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Hypertension (HTN) is a major cardiovascular risk factor yet control rates remain suboptimal. Thus, improving recognition, treatment, and control of HTN by focusing on novel populations such as hospitalized patients is warranted. Current consensus guidelines do not address inpatient HTN, and little is known about HTN prevalence or patterns of care in this setting. ⋯ Inpatient HTN is prevalent and a large percentage of those with this condition remain hypertensive at the time of discharge and at follow-up. The potential exists for improved recognition and treatment of newly diagnosed and known, but uncontrolled, HTN observed in the inpatient setting.