SHM Converge Scientific Abstract ePoster Gallery-What the Heck Is a Hospitalist? Patients' Understanding of the Hospitalist Role and Other Common Inpatient Medical Terminology

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This abstract reports a survey study on how well hospitalized patients understand the term “hospitalist” and other common inpatient medical words. Because clear communication is essential to good inpatient care, the authors examined whether patients know the role of the hospitalist and recognize medical terminology often used in the hospital.<br /><br />Patients admitted to a hospital medicine service at two urban academic medical centers for at least three days were randomly selected and surveyed in person or by phone. The survey had two questions: one asked patients to describe what a hospitalist does, and the other asked which of 13 medical terms they had heard in the hospital but found confusing.<br /><br />To date, 163 patients completed the first question and 147 completed the second. The average patient age was 60.1 years, 53% were female, and the average length of stay was 10.0 days.<br /><br />Nearly half of patients (47%) said they did not know what a hospitalist was or were unsure. Other common explanations described a hospitalist as someone who provides care and improves wellbeing (17%), the main doctor in charge (15%), a coordinator or liaison between providers and patients (13%), or a clinician who performs specific tasks like diagnosing and writing orders (11%).<br /><br />Among the medical terms, the most misunderstood was NPO (45%), followed by PA (26%), attending (25%), comfort care (23%), rounds (22%), resident (21%), and intern (18%). Other terms such as primary team, consultant, ICU, floor, specialist, and discharge were also sometimes unclear.<br /><br />The authors conclude that many hospitalized patients are unfamiliar with both the hospitalist role and common hospital terminology, highlighting a need for better communication and patient education.

Asset Subtitle

Nicole Curatola

Meta Tag

Author List C to, Ebrahim Barkoudah, Elizabeth A. Bambury, Erin Yao-Cohen, Hassan Khalil, James D. Harrison, Jeffrey L. Schnipper, Jenica Cimino, Mariam Atkinson, Mohammed Wazir, Nathan Juergens, Nicole Curatola, Rachel Weiss, Sampath Mani

Category Research

Concept Hospitalist Role

Concept Inpatient Care

Concept Communication Gap

Concept Patient Awareness

Concept Patient Understanding

Distinguished Non-Finalist

Presenter Organization University of California, San Franscisco

Presenting Author Nicole Curatola

Track Communication

Keywords

hospitalist

hospitalized patients

inpatient communication

medical terminology

patient understanding

survey study

hospital medicine

NPO

patient education

urban academic medical centers

Hospitalist Role

Inpatient Care

Communication Gap

Patient Awareness

Patient Understanding