Brief Report: Meeting the Needs of Medically Hospitalized Adults with Autism--A Provider and Patient Toolkit

In an effort to meet the needs of adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) while hospitalized, a team of experts and providers from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), MGH for Children as well as parents of individuals with ASD was sparked in 2013. This became a multidisciplinary collaborative, the MGH Autism Care Collaborative, to improve adult care for inpatients with ASD. The collaborative was created with three goals in mind: (1) to educate internal medicine adult inpatient providers and staff on the unique needs of adults with ASD when hospitalized; (2) to create ASD specific resources for internal medicine adult inpatient providers; and (3) to optimize patient care from admission to discharge among adults with ASD admitted to internal medicine services.