A Novel Therapy for Lymphedema

tients who have multiple handovers during their admission, especially with the increasing use of night-float and nonteaching hospitalist services in academic centers. In addition, interventions can be designed and implemented specifically for those patients who are particularly vulnerable, such as elderly patients or those without a high degree of education. At least 1 study has suggested that placing physician photographs in the patients’ rooms may help them to identify physicians. At the same time, patients should be encouraged to take specific measures to stay informed about who is involved in their care and what the responsibility level of each caregiver is. Going 1 step further, the Lewis Blackman Hospital Patient Safety Act, recently enacted in South Carolina, mandates that all hospital personnel wear appropriate name tags that identify their name and their role to patients and that patients are provided with education on how to immediately contact the attending physician in charge of their care. There are several limitations of this study. This single institution study may not be generalizable to other settings, such as community hospitals. Loss to follow-up raises concerns of selection bias. Fortunately, patients who were lost to follow-up did not significantly differ by their ability to correctly identify their inpatient physician. Patients lost to follow-up were, however, more likely to be African American, male, hospitalized longer, hospitalized in the last year, and without a primary care physician at the University of Chicago, highlighting the difficulty in following up this group of patients. Third, patients may not have understood the questions or misinterpreted the question to refer to their primary care physician. Because of this, during pilot testing of earlier questions, we added the phrase “caring for you in the hospital.” Despite these limitations, the majority of hospitalized patients are unable to name someone in charge of their care. This suggests that academic hospitals should focus on improving the ability of patients to understand the names and roles of their inpatient physicians.