Case Presentation: A 42 year-old Caucasian male with a past medical history significant for schizoaffective disorder with command auditory hallucinations, often commanding him to harm himself or others, with multiple suicide attempts by ingestion, and history of poly-substance abuse, was found by his friend on the floor of his apartment, seemingly unconscious, with copious amounts [...]

Background: Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) is a leading healthcare-associated infection causing debilitating diarrhea, life-threatening complications, 20,500 deaths and healthcare costs of up to $5.4 billion annually in the US. The main driver of CDI costs is hospitalizations, and patients with higher CDI recurrence rates have more hospitalizations and emergency department visits and longer hospital stays. [...]

Background: As hospitals focus on central venous catheter associated bloodstream infections (CVC-BSI), the impact of peripheral venous catheter (PVC) associated bloodstream infections (PVC-BSI) may be underappreciated. There are conflicting recommendations on how to manage PVCs, including when to replace them (1)(2)(3), and inconsistencies in nursing practice in following PVC management guidelines (4). There are an [...]

Background: An estimated 1 in 5 patients are at risk for being readmitted to the hospital within 30 days of discharge. Readmissions put a large financial strain on the United States healthcare system and increase risk for poor patient care outcomes. The Centers for Medicare/Medicaid Services publicly report readmission data and have financial penalties for [...]

Background: The widely published socioeconomic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic motivated us to address social determinants of health on our inpatient pediatric unit. Screening for food insecurity (FI) was recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) for all medical care settings in 2015. Our aim was to implement universal screening and intervention for FI [...]

Background: Physical therapy (PT) in the inpatient setting is a limited and valuable resource. Inappropriate PT consultation is costly and can lead to delays in care. Overutilization of inpatient PT services is an increasingly recognized problem. Patients with minimal or no functional limitations frequently receive PT evaluation, diverting resources and delaying care for the patients [...]

Background: Disrupted sleep is a common complaint among hospitalized patients and is associated with adverse outcomes including the development of delirium. Wearable vital sign monitoring devices (VSMDs) are emerging alternatives to nurse-collected vitals that could replace the need for overnight vital checks. This study assesses patient and nurse attitudes toward an FDA-cleared VSMD (Caretaker-4), including [...]

Background: Early introduction of palliative care for medically complex patients can improve patient-centered outcomes. Yet, little is known about how to address these issues as patients are cared for by multiple teams in multiple care settings between hospital, home health care and primary care. Here we highlight clinician perspectives about introducing palliative care in the [...]

Background: Considerable resources are expended by academic divisions of hospital medicine (HM) to recruit and retain physicians that will be successful. Despite the high stakes for the institution and candidate, there is a lack of data to guide these decisions. Suppositions regarding what attributes contribute to success predominate. We evaluated the relationship between factors known [...]

Background: The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) established a core competency that requires residents to demonstrate respect and responsiveness to diverse patient populations (1). While the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in graduate medical education (GME) is recognized, establishing an effective curriculum to address these issues is challenging. In pre-survey data [...]