Use of unit-based interventions to improve the quality of care for hospitalized medical patients: a national survey.

O'Leary KJ, Johnson JK, Manojlovich M, Astik GJ, Williams MV. Jt Comm J Qual Patient Saf. 2017 Jul 21; [Epub ahead of print].

Previous studies have investigated the benefits of unit-based interventions as a potential safety strategy. This survey study sought to examine implementation of several unit-based initiatives to improve care quality in inpatient settings: localization of physicians to specific designated units, nurse–physician joint leadership, periodic review of local performance data, and interdisciplinary rounds. Investigators invited residency program directors and hospital medicine leaders to participate in the study. The response rate was low and thus the findings may not reflect academic hospitals in general. Overall, among respondents' institutions, the interventions were not widely or consistently implemented. These findings underscore the challenge of translating interventions shown to be effective for enhancing safety in research settings into clinical practice.

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