SHM Converge Scientific Abstract ePoster Gallery-Impact of Chairs on Provider Sitting at the Hospital Bedside

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This pre-post study examined whether placing wall-mounted folding chairs in hospital patient rooms, combined with resident education, would increase how often internal medicine residents sit at the bedside. The project was conducted on four general medicine units at Johns Hopkins: two units received chairs, and two comparable units served as education-only controls. Chairs were mounted visibly near the entrance to patient rooms for easy access. Patient surveys were completed before and after the intervention, asking about resident sitting behavior and related communication practices.<br /><br />A total of 256 patients were enrolled in the pre-intervention period and 206 in the post-intervention period. After the intervention, patients reported that residents sat at the bedside more often on all units, but the increase was larger on units with chairs than on education-only units. For example, patients on chair-equipped units reported greater improvement in sitting during bedside visits and when discussing important updates with family. Chair units also showed improvement in patients’ perceptions that residents spent enough time at the bedside and checked for understanding.<br /><br />The findings suggest that simply adding chairs may address a known practical barrier to bedside sitting and may serve as a behavioral nudge. Education alone helped somewhat, but the addition of chairs had a stronger effect. The authors conclude that placing folding chairs in patient rooms may be a simple, durable way to improve bedside communication and potentially patient experience and engagement. They recommend testing this approach in other clinical settings.<br /><br />Limitations included the COVID-19-related pause in data collection, a single-site design, and unknown patient demographics.

Asset Subtitle

Blair P. Golden

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Author List Alison Agrawal, Aparna Sajja, Blair P. Golden, Kaley Tilton, Kimiyoshi J. Kobayashi, Matt Lautzenheiser, Meron Hirpa, Sarah Disney, Sean Tackett, Stephen A. Berry, Terry Nelson, Ting-Jia Lorigiano

Category Research

Concept Bedside Sitting

Concept Wall-Mounted Folding Chair

Concept Patient-Reported Communication Behaviors

Concept Educational Intervention

Concept Quasi-Randomized Study Design

Distinguished Non-Finalist

Presenter Organization Division of Hospital Medicine, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health

Presenting Author Blair P. Golden

Track Communication

Keywords

bedside communication

hospital patient rooms

folding chairs

resident education

internal medicine residents

patient experience

behavioral nudge

bedside sitting

hospital intervention

patient surveys

Bedside Sitting

Wall-Mounted Folding Chair

Patient-Reported Communication Behaviors

Educational Intervention

Quasi-Randomized Study Design