Listening Better Through Bedside Rounding: A Quality Improvement Initiative

Bedside rounding is vital for physicians to connect with hospitalized patients. In this study, we developed and implemented a bedside rounding quality improvement initiative focused on bedside communication and physician listening.

Our study included developing and implementing a standardized bedside rounding intervention with resident and faculty education in a major academic teaching hospital. A total of 63 patients were surveyed before and after intervention implementation.

Implementation of bedside rounding resulted in increased patient awareness of the daily medical plan, their diagnosis and concerns addressed but was not associated with improvement in explanation of plan (p = 0.08) in a comparison between teams that implemented bedside rounding versus those that did not.

Bedside rounding demonstrated a trend toward improved patient-provider communication in the hospital, but more investigation is required prior to broader implementation.