SHM Converge Scientific Abstract ePoster Gallery-Protocol to Improve Hospitalist Geographic Localization

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This study evaluated a protocol to improve hospitalist geographic localization at Froedtert Hospital, a 711-bed academic medical center. The goal was to reduce how many inpatient units hospitalists had to cover each day, since patient overflow to multiple units can worsen efficiency and potentially affect outcomes.<br /><br />The intervention involved reassessing medicine unit bed capacity and hospitalist census, then reassigning home teams and primary units to better match patient volumes. Home teams were also given secondary overflow units based on where extra medicine patients were most often placed. Importantly, no new assigned medicine beds were added.<br /><br />The main outcome was dispersion, defined as the number of different units where hospitalists had patients. Secondary outcomes included length of stay index (LOS-I), mortality index, 72-hour readmissions, patient satisfaction, and care coordination rounds attendance. Provider feedback was also collected through surveys. The study ran from June 2022 to July 2023 and used a Student’s t-test for analysis.<br /><br />Results showed that the localization protocol was effective in reducing dispersion. This improvement was associated with a decrease in LOS-I, though the study could not prove direct causation. Other quality measures were tracked as balancing outcomes, and subjective feedback from hospitalist team members was either positive or neutral.<br /><br />Overall, the study suggests that a simple reassignment protocol can improve hospitalist localization without adding beds, and may also support better efficiency and workflow.

Asset Subtitle

Kavita Naik

Meta Tag

Author List Barbara Slawski, Kavita Naik

Category Research

Concept Hospitalist Localization Protocol

Concept Unit Dispersion

Concept Patient Cohorting

Concept Hospitalist

Concept Primary Inpatient Unit

Distinguished Non-Finalist

Presenter Organization The Medical College of WI

Presenting Author Kavita Naik

Track Quality Improvement

Keywords

hospitalist localization

geographic localization

patient overflow

inpatient units

bed capacity

dispersion

length of stay index

mortality index

readmission rates

care coordination

Hospitalist Localization Protocol

Unit Dispersion

Patient Cohorting

Hospitalist

Primary Inpatient Unit