Background: Persistent hypotension in patients affected by circulatory shock is a common barrier to discharge in the ICU. Even after these patients have been otherwise stabilized, low-level hypotension often ensures that they remain in the ICU on IV vasopressors. Midodrine, an oral α1-agonist, has shown promise as an adjunct therapy to wean patients off IV [...]

Background: Evidence suggests that oxygen supplementation is only beneficial to hypoxic patients (or oxygen saturation (SPO2) < 90%) yet is commonly given to normoxemic patients despite having no clinical indication for its use. Excessive oxygen supplementation with saturations above 96% for long periods of time has also been proven to increase mortality rates when compared [...]

Background: One in three heavy drinkers experience acute alcohol-associated hepatitis (AAH). AAH is defined as acute liver injury with elevated bilirubin and AST/ALT ratio >1.5 in the setting of heavy alcohol use. AAH has a high mortality rate and is associated with development of chronic liver disease; thus, it is crucial to correctly identify patients [...]

Background: Hospitalists rely on recommendations from occupational and physical therapists (OT and PT) to determine safe discharge (DC) location and level of care for hospitalized patients. During the COVID-19 pandemic, social distancing limited interactions between patients and providers, including PTs and OTs. As a result, occupational and physical therapy (OT and PT) evaluations of patients [...]

Background: Since early 2020, the entire world has been enveloped within the COVID-19 pandemic. As research surrounding healthcare processes during the pandemic has surged, little has been studied regarding the pandemic’s impact on home-healthcare agencies (HHA). Previous research during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic found varied pandemic preparedness among HHAs. Therefore, this study aims to understand [...]

Background: General medicine physicians should aim to promote patient-centered care in clinical practice, and contribute to research that will advance general medicine as an academic discipline [1]. However, the general medicine certified board in Japan has been established since 2018 [2], and the trend in their research achievements is not clear. Therefore, this study aimed [...]

Background: Academic hospital medicine (HM) faculty typically follow clinician educator tracks with academic hospitalists seeing education as their primary motivation for joining academic programs. According to the 2020 State of Hospital Medicine survey, shifts and clinical work hours for academic HM faculty expectations are similar to community practice (ref). Many academic HM faculty are on [...]

Background: Nursing facility (NF) quality of care is the subject of many innovations. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) allows for public comparison of quality measures. New Mexico (NM) consistently explores how to improve care in these areas. There are 70 NFs in NM; half are scattered in isolated rural areas. The shortage [...]

Background: Persistently high hospital volumes, increased patient complexity, and lack of skilled nursing bed availability have led to significant bottlenecks in care and decreased inpatient bed availability. A hospital-wide initiative was created to increase the rate of discharge before noon (DBN). To meet discharge targets on hospital medicine units, we formed a multidisciplinary quality improvement [...]

Background: The inpatient ward provides a unique opportunity for innovative educational approaches. Hospitalists can champion novel educational applications and address millennial’s learning preferences. Many faculty lack adequate training in teaching skills, yet clinician educators must be knowledgeable and confident in their teaching abilities. COVID-19 clarified that in-person faculty development (FD) events are questionable as future [...]