SHM Converge Scientific Abstract ePoster Gallery-Improving Hospitalists and Consultant Interactions at an Academic Teaching Hospital.

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This project evaluated whether consultation guidelines and departmental feedback could improve hospitalist and emergency medicine clinicians’ perceptions of specialty consultant interactions at a single academic hospital.<br /><br />The background noted that growing academic medical centers and increased consultation use can strain services, contribute to unnecessary testing and longer length of stay, and create problems when consultant documentation is unclear. A needs assessment identified consultation process issues as a barrier to efficient care.<br /><br />The intervention had two parts:  <br />1. Continuous quality improvement through physician survey data and implementation of practice guidelines clarifying the roles and responsibilities of consulting and consultant services.  <br />2. Sharing interdepartmental feedback with consultants.<br /><br />Hospital medicine and emergency medicine providers were surveyed before the intervention in February 2022 and after it in August 2022 using a 5-point Likert scale. Survey domains included promptness, feedback, and follow-up. Pre/post results were compared with unpaired Welch’s t-tests.<br /><br />Survey response rates were modest, but post-intervention scores improved overall. Mean scores increased for promptness (3.42 to 3.69, p=0.019) and follow-up (3.46 to 3.80, p=0.001), while feedback remained essentially unchanged (3.26 to 3.27, p=0.928). Overall scores improved from 3.38 to 3.60, though this did not reach statistical significance (p=0.051). Several surgical and specialty services showed the largest improvements.<br /><br />The authors concluded that a multidisciplinary collaboration among emergency medicine, hospital medicine, specialty leaders, and executive leadership improved perceptions of consultant performance, especially when survey results were shared. The resulting consultation guidelines were incorporated into hospital bylaws.

Asset Subtitle

Ankur Segon

Meta Tag

Author List Ankur Segon, John M. Cunningham, Nathan Sevigny, Phillip Minor, Robert Leverence

Category Research

Concept Hospitalist-Consultant Interaction

Concept Consultation Quality

Concept Patient Care

Concept Quality Improvement

Concept Consultant Performance

Distinguished Non-Finalist

Presenter Organization University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio

Presenting Author Ankur Segon

Track Communication

Keywords

consultation guidelines

hospitalist perceptions

emergency medicine

specialty consultants

quality improvement

interdepartmental feedback

consultant interactions

academic hospital

survey intervention

consultation process

Hospitalist-Consultant Interaction

Consultation Quality

Patient Care

Quality Improvement

Consultant Performance