University Community Hospital (UCH) is a 431-bed, private, not-for-profit hospital that provides mainly acute care. It contains six centers of excellence focused on major disease areas, including cancer treatment, cardiac care, women's health, pediatrics, diabetes management, and orthopedics. A computerized medical records system is presently being implemented at UCH, but the system was not functional at the time of this study. UCH also has a centralized, integrated Case Management department that coordinates discharge planning for the entire hospital.
We received human subject protection approval for all phases of this study from each of the Tampa VA Hospital and UCH approval boards.