The Section of Hospital Medicine strives to create a no-blame culture for case-based learning. The Section conducts regular Morbidity and Mortality case presentations (M&M), with an aim to learn from these cases. Many of these efforts have resulted in institutional policy changes to improve patient safety. Routinely, patient safety culture is assessed, and surveys are distributed to understand the local culture. Faculty are expected to participate in M&M conferences as well as any safety culture surveys at both section and institutional levels. Quality Improvement (QI) projects often stem from these cases; therefore, faculty are encouraged to bring them forth.
The Section constantly encourages participation in quality improvement projects and expects every provider to be involved in at least one. Hospitalists play a pivotal role in serving on various institutional committees (ITS Inpatient Governance, Safety Learning Systems, Patient Safety and Adverse Events Committee, to name a few), serve as physician project champions and are an integral part of institutional policy changes.
Hospital Medicine’s highlights in quality improvement and safety include:
- 15*10 Length of Stay Project
- Advanced Care Planning Documentation Improvement
- Clinical Documentation and Coding/Billing Improvement
- Discharge Summary Project – Be Direct
- Emergency Department Flow Project
- ICU-Medical Floor Process Improvement Initiative
- M&M Conference Series - Faculty and APP versions
- Paging Standardization and Nursing Collaboration Project
- Patient Experience
- Physician and APP Wellness Initiative
- Physician Flex Project
- PROC - Progress Note Project
- Transfer System Project
Awards
Chi-Cheng Huang, MD, Padageshwar Sunkara, MBBS, and their team won the 2019 Division of General Internal Medicine Clinical Innovation and Improvement Award for their initiative on reducing length of stay. The award was given by the Division of General Internal Medicine.