Improve hospital efficiency by defining the goals of hospitalization

Do this at the outset. Otherwise patients and families may expect you to “fix everything” that’s wrong with the patient. From Hospitalist News:

…ensure patient and family “buy-in” to the hospitalization goal. As our hospital patients continue to get sicker, I have found that patients and their families see the hospital as a place to solve all of their medical problems. There has to be a limit on tangential evaluations that lead to testing that is unrelated to why the patient is in the hospital.