Background: Coronary Computed Tomography Angiography (CCTA) is a common anatomic modality for detection of cardiac ischemia in the setting of chest pain hospitalizations. However, invasive coronary angiography (ICA) is the gold standard for diagnosing ischemic coronary artery disease. Research showed that CCTA has a high sensitivity but lacks the specificity and accuracy component of Fractional [...]

Background: The United States healthcare system has witnessed an overwhelming trend towards mergers of hospitals and acquisitions, with the proportion of primary care physicians working in hospital – or healthcare system-owned organizations increasing from 28% to 44% from 2010 to 2016. Existing evidence suggests this consolidation has driven higher costs but has had mixed effects [...]

Background: Since the introduction of the hospitalist system in Korea, their role and responsibilities have grown significantly. However, the current status and impact of Korean hospitalists on job satisfaction are poorly studied. We aimed to investigate the present state of Korean hospitalists and their influence on job satisfaction, six years after the pilot program’s launch. [...]

Background: Guidelines for inpatient diabetes management recommend insulin therapy for persistent hyperglycemia >180 mg/dL with a target glucose range of 140 – 180 mg/dL.1,2 Although guidelines recommend glucose monitoring for insulin administration, there is no standard monitoring approach for patients without evidence of persistent hyperglycemia. As such, hospitalized patients are frequently started on 3 – [...]

Background: In societies with an aging population, hospitalists manage patients with a multitude of comorbidities, and many have challenging social circumstances. Patients with high social risk tend to have poorer healthcare outcomes, yet it is unclear how prevalent social risk factors are among hospitalized patients. We studied the prevalence of social risk among hospitalized patients [...]

Background: In the hospital care setting, clinician groups employ a range of staffing models utilizing physicians as well as advanced practice providers (APPs), to meet patient care needs. Models have evolved in recent years in part due to pandemic related staffing constraints; proposed policy changes to billing practices may also be contributing. The Centers for [...]

Background: Infectious gastroenteritis is a common cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. The FilmArray GI panel (GIP) is a multiplex PCR assay that can rapidly detect 21 gastrointestinal pathogens, including 13 bacteria, 5 viruses, and 4 parasites. The GIP has high sensitivity and specificity for most targets and has been widely adopted in clinical practice. [...]

Background: Sepsis is one of the most common life-threatening conditions and is associated with significant mortality, length of stay, and cost for hospitals and health systems worldwide. Based on a recent report, there has been an increase in rates of hospital-acquired sepsis (HAS), or sepsis “not-present-on-admission”, in California from 2020 to 2021. Aspiration pneumonia was [...]

Background: Historically, there has been a significant disparity in the number of patient experience Press Ganey survey responses between English-speaking patients and those who speak other languages. In 2022, our organization observed a remarkably low inpatient Press Ganey survey response rate for the Spanish-speaking patient population, standing at 5.7%. Out of 2,303 surveys sent, only [...]

Background: A 2013 Mayo Clinic initiative (Henkin et al, 2016) to encourage communication between physicians and nurses by paging each to bedside for daily morning rounds improved physician and nursing perceptions of teamwork. Utilizing a mobile electronic-health-record-based alert for such a process has the potential to reduce implementation cost and feasibility barriers but has not [...]