The impact of shifting hospitalist switch days from Monday to Tuesday

There is limited data on which hospitalist switch day is optimal for hospital operations and throughput. A quality improvement intervention was implemented, changing the hospitalist switch day from Monday to Tuesday. Retrospective observational analysis revealed an increase in Monday discharges (1.3%, p = .01), a decrease in Tuesday discharges (-1.6%, p < .005), and a significant reduction in 30-day unplanned readmission rates (-1.5%, p = .003), with no significant changes in the average length of stay. Additional studies are needed to further verify these findings in different hospital settings and to consider other switch day patterns.