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Background: Opioid related overdoses are a leading cause of death in the United States (U.S). National, state and local initiatives have been implemented to combat the opioid crisis. However, there is a paucity of initiatives that examine the role of comprehensive naloxone education interventions for hospitalized patients. Objective: The aim of this study was to design a multidisciplinary, pharmacist-driven, standardized, patient and product tailored, inpatient naloxone education program (NEP) at a U.S. academic medical center, targeting patients at high risk of opioid overdose, and to examine patients' retention of education. Methods: This prospective pilot study targeted hospitalized patients who were considered at high-risk for opioid overdose once discharged. Using daily screening methods and established inclusion criteria, we evaluated the impact of implementing a patient-tailored NEP. The primary outcome measures were patient knowledge and awareness of naloxone use. A paired t-test analysis was conducted to assess for improvement in patient naloxone awareness and knowledge. Results: Of ninety-five patients screened, forty-four patients met inclusion criteria and nineteen patients completed naloxone education along with pre- and post-assessments. Patients more accurately completed the assessment, indicating enhanced knowledge about naloxone use and administration, following the naloxone education (4.68 ±.13 vs 3.42 ±.31 out of 5 questions, mean ± SEM; P =.0016). Conclusion: This study found a positive impact on patient knowledge of naloxone use and administration following implementation of a robust and comprehensive NEP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Various strategies have attempted to address increased patient lengths of stay (LOS), but effectiveness varies. Factors related to work design and workforce experience may also play significant roles., Objective: Utilizing data from the Discharge in the A.M. trial, we aimed to validate an electronic measure of workload (i.e., note count) and assess the relationship of workload, patient complexity, and physician years of experience to LOS., Methods: Retrospective observational study at three large academic hospitals with hospital medicine physicians and patients they care for during the study., Measures: Workload as measured by electronic note count and physician years of experience; patient LOS., Results: From February 9, 2021 to July 31, 2021, 59 physicians completed daily surveys for 93% of 2318 scheduled shifts. We observed a moderate correlation (r: .56) between starting morning census and note counts but no association with LOS. We observed an effect modification between note count and the Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI), with LOS increasing by 2.3% (95% CI: 0.3%, 4.3%; p = .02) and 3.9% (95% CI: 2.0%, 5.9%; p < .0001) per patient for every 1 unit increase in note count for patients with a moderate CCI or severe CCI, respectively. Years since training was associated with a 0.7% decrease in LOS (95% CI: -1.3%, -0.1%, p = .03)., Conclusion: Physician workload, as measured by note count, was associated with longer LOS with higher CCI, while more years of experience was associated with shorter LOS. Original Clinical Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT05370638., (© 2024 Society of Hospital Medicine.)

Background and Objective: Unnecessary care delays of hospitalized patients increase the risk of hospital-related complications and drive up health care costs. While health systems focus on reducing the length of stay of hospitalized patients, not many studies looked at specific causes of the care delays that prolong length of stay. In this study, we sought to systematically identify and categorize the various care delays that contribute to prolonged length of stay on a hospital medicine service., Methods: We conducted a retrospective observational study looking at all inpatient encounters to the hospitalist service (N = 6633) for the fiscal year 2021. Observation status, COVID-19 positive, and other services' discharged patients were excluded (N = 2849) leaving 3784 eligible encounters. The resulting 5% stratified random sample accounted for 190 encounters accounting for a total of 1152 patient-days. Using a standardized data extraction tool, a day-by-day review of the sample encounters was performed for all care delays. These care delays were categorized into specific groups (System, Discharge, Provider, Patient/Family, or Consultant related) and subgroups based on predetermined criteria., Results: The stratified sample was found to be comparable to the total patient population, with no statistically significant differences in key demographic and clinical metrics. About 30% of all patient-days had a care delay; 33% of these delays were attributable to system delays internal to the hospital such as waiting for imaging/procedures; 28% of delays were due to discharge barriers, driven overwhelmingly by a lack of available post-acute care beds, and about 20% of delays were attributable to the provider., Conclusion: Our study systematically looked at care delays that led to prolonged hospital length of stay. Most of these care delays were caused by either wait times for procedures and imaging studies or by a lack of post-acute care bed availability. Hospitals and health systems can use this approach to better determine which systemic changes are likely to be the most effective at reducing length of stay., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.)