Differences in designations of observation care in US freestanding children's hospitals: Are they virtual or real?

OBJECTIVE: To characterize practices related to observation care and to examine the current models of pediatric observation medicine in US children's hospitals. DESIGN: We utilized 2 web‐based surveys to examine observation care in the 42 hospitals participating in the Pediatric Health Information System database. We obtained information regarding the designation of observation status, including the criteria used to admit patients into observation. From hospitals reporting the use of observation status, we requested specific details relating to the structures of observation care and the processes of care for observation patients following emergency department treatment. RESULTS: A total of 37 hospitals responded to Survey 1, and 20 hospitals responded to Survey 2. Designated observation units were present in only 12 of 31 (39%) hospitals that report observation patient data to the Pediatric Health Information System. Observation status was variably defined in terms of duration of treatment and prespecified criteria. Observation periods were limited to <48 hours in 24 of 31 (77%) hospitals. Hospitals reported that various standards were used by different payers to determine observation status reimbursement. Observation care was delivered in a variety of settings. Most hospitals indicated that there were no differences in the clinical care delivered to virtual observation status patients when compared with other inpatients. CONCLUSIONS: Observation is a variably applied patient status, defined differently by individual hospitals. Consistency in the designation of patients under observation status among hospitals and payers may be necessary to compare quality outcomes and costs, as well as optimize models of pediatric observation care. Journal of Hospital Medicine 2012;. © 2011 Society of Hospital Medicine.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/91108/1/949_ftp.pd

Observation‐status patients in children's hospitals with and without dedicated observation units in 2011

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/111995/1/jhm2339.pd

Virtual Guidebook to the History of New York City

A virtual guidebook to the history of NYC will be developed using Wordpress and integrated into a Fall 2016 history course. As an assignment for the course, each student will research and contribute an entry for the site, finding primary sources and writing captions and analytical text. Visitors to the site will be able to view entries on a map, as well as sorted by category (such as events and landmarks). Students will also create their own tags (for example, civil unrest or Robert Moses ), allowing them to design new ways of sorting content themselves. This site will provide students with hands-on training as historians as they research and analyze primary sources and write narratives that explore the history of various New York City landmarks, events, and neighborhoods. The project will also encourage students to think like curators, as they consider how to present complex information for public consumption. Finally, students will gain exposure to the growing field of the digital humanities and gain fluency in WordPress. Each year when I teach the course, students will contribute a new set of entries and further fill in the map, making this project very fluid and collaborative