Clinical Focus


  • Internal Medicine

Academic Appointments


  • Clinical Assistant Professor, Medicine

Administrative Appointments


  • Internal Medicine Physician Assistant Rotation Clerkship Director, Stanford Tri-Valley (2018 - Present)
  • Co-Chair, Code/RRT Committee, Stanford Tri-Valley (2021 - Present)
  • Co-Chair, Hospital Quality Council, Stanford Tri-Valley (2020 - Present)
  • Co-Chair, Core Measures Committee, Stanford Tri-Valley (2018 - Present)

Professional Education


  • Medical Education: University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine (2014) CA
  • Residency: Stanford University Internal Medicine Residency (2017) CA
  • Board Certification: American Board of Internal Medicine, Internal Medicine (2017)

Projects


  • The Wish Project, Stanford ValleyCare (2018)

    The Wish Project seeks to enhance care at end-of-life by granting small wishes reflective of the patient.

    Location

    Pleasanton, CA

All Publications


  • Medically ready for discharge: A multisite "point-in-time" assessment of hospitalized patients. Journal of hospital medicine Bann, M., Meo, N., Lopez, J. P., Ou, A., Rosenthal, M., Khawaja, H., Goodman, L. A., Barone, M., Coleman, B., High, H. J., Overbeek, L., Shelbourn, P., VerMaas, L., Baughman, A., Sekaran, A., Cyrus, R., O'Dorisio, N., Beatty, L., Loica-Mersa, S., Kubey, A., Jaffe, R., Vokoun, C., Koom-Dadzie, K., Graves, K., Tuck, M., Helgerson, P. 2023

    Abstract

    BACKGROUND: Time spent awaiting discharge after the acute need for hospitalization has resolved is an important potential contributor to hospital length of stay (LOS).OBJECTIVE: To measure the prevalence, impact, and context of patients who remain hospitalized for prolonged periods after completion of acute care needs.DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: We conducted a cross-sectional "point-in-time" survey at each of 15 academic US hospitals using a structured data collection tool with on-service acute care medicine attending physicians in fall 2022.MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Primary outcomes were number and percentage of patients considered "medically ready for discharge" with emphasis on those who had experienced a "major barrier to discharge" (medically ready for discharge for ≥1 week). Estimated LOS attributable to major discharge barriers, contributory discharge needs, and associated hospital characteristics were measured.RESULTS: Of 1928 patients sampled, 35.0% (n=674) were medically ready for discharge including 9.8% (n=189) with major discharge barriers. Many patients with major discharge barriers (44.4%; 84/189) had spent a month or longer medically ready for discharge and commonly (84.1%; 159/189) required some form of skilled therapy or daily living support services for discharge. Higher proportions of patients experiencing major discharge barriers were found in public versus private, nonprofit hospitals (12.0% vs. 7.2%; p=.001) and county versus noncounty hospitals (14.5% vs. 8.8%; p=.002).CONCLUSIONS: Patients experience major discharge barriers in many US hospitals and spend prolonged time awaiting discharge, often for support needs that may be outside of clinician control.

    View details for DOI 10.1002/jhm.13184

    View details for PubMedID 37553979

  • The Wish Project: Implementation of a Low-Cost End-of-Life Intervention in a Community Setting Minh-Chi Tran, Cravotto, B., Loica-Mersa, S., Jia, X., Conley, J., Tran, Q. ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC. 2022: 895-896
  • How Much Time are Physicians and Nurses Spending Together at the Patient Bedside? Journal of hospital medicine Sang, A. X., Tisdale, R. L., Nielsen, D., Loica-Mersa, S., Miller, T., Chong, I., Shieh, L. 2019; 14: E1–E6

    Abstract

    BACKGROUND: Bedside rounding involving both nurses and physicians has numerous benefits for patients and staff. However, precise quantitative data on the current extent of physician-nurse (MD-RN) overlap at the patient bedside are lacking.OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to examine the frequency of nurse and physician overlap at the patient beside and what factors affect this frequency.DESIGN: This is a prospective, observational study of time-motion data generated from wearable radio frequency identification (RFID)-based locator technology.SETTING: Single-institution academic hospital.MEASUREMENTS: The length of physician rounds, frequency of rounds that include nurses simultaneously at the bedside, and length of MD-RN overlap were measured and analyzed by ward, day of week, and distance between patient room and nursing station.RESULTS: A total of 739 MD rounding events were captured over 90 consecutive days. Of these events, 267 took place in single-bed patient rooms. The frequency of MD-RN overlap was 30.0%, and there was no statistical difference between the three wards studied. Overall, the average length of all MD rounds was 7.31 ± 0.58 minutes, but rounding involving a bedside nurse lasted longer than rounds with MDs alone (9.56 vs 5.68 minutes, P < .05). There was no difference in either the length of rounds or the frequency of MD-RN overlap between weekdays and weekends. Finally, patient rooms located farther away from the nursing station had a lower likelihood of MD-RN overlap (Pearson's r = -0.67, P < .05).CONCLUSION: RFID-based technology provides precise, automated, and high-throughput time-motion data to capture nurse and physician activity. At our institution, 30.0% of rounds involve a bedside nurse, highlighting a potential barrier to bedside interdisciplinary rounding.

    View details for DOI 10.12788/jhm.3204

    View details for PubMedID 31112496