Background: Central lines are commonly used in the care of hospitalized patients. Each day a central line is in place the risk of complications such as bloodstream infection rises. Yet central lines often remain in place after they are no longer clinically useful. Preliminary data suggests one obstacle to the timely removal of central lines [...]

Background: The notorious weekend effect compromises quality of care. However, the implementation of hospitalist system with a 24 hour/7 day coverage may erase the adverse weekend effect. Methods: A quasi‐experimental study with propensity score matching of a three‐year general medicine cohort was conducted in a medical center. Patients admitted on weekdays were compared to those [...]

Background: The effect of clinical alert system (CAS) and medical emergency team (MET) for hospitalized patients is controversial. Failure to timely activate MET and ineffective MET function after activation have been criticized. The study aims to propose an active way to implement CAS by the hospitalist system. Methods: The study was conducted in National Taiwan [...]

Background: Hip fracture patients are now routinely cared for by hospitalists with orthopedic consultation. Demographically, these patients tend to be elderly and frail with multiple medical comorbidities. Much has been published about minimizing the use of feeding tubes in this demographic, specifically in individuals with advanced dementia, and hospitalists have wisely begun to avoid placement [...]

Background: Immobilization is known to be an important contributing factor to venous thromboembolism (VTE). However, the currently available risk assessment models for VTE in hospitalized medical patients use variable definitions of reduced mobility that are difficult to standardize and to apply prospectively. We sought to evaluate the physician’s ability to determine at the time of [...]

Background: Altered mental status is one of the strongest predictors of clinical deterioration in the hospital, yet it often goes unrecognized. Current tests to assess mental status in the hospital lack the sensitivity to capture small changes in mental status and are cumbersome to administer, making serial administration challenging. Accurate and timely assessment of cognition [...]

Background: Online personal health records (PHR) can provide opportunities for hospitalized patients to engage in their care during and after discharge but patient use of PHRs in these settings has not been studied to date. Our objective was to assess effects of a bedside intervention to increase inpatient engagement with their PHR. Methods: We developed [...]

Background: Ownership of mobile computing devices has been rapidly increasing in the general population prompting increased clinical uses in outpatient settings. To date, however, we know very little about ownership, type of device, and usage of mobile devices in hospitalized patients. Methods: A cross‐sectional survey of adult inpatients at our hospital on the following services: [...]

Background: The Yale New Haven Hospital adapted the Sunrise Clinical Manager (SCM) by Eclipse Corporation as its Electronic Medical Record (EMR) in 2007. The Hospitalist Service (HS) created a program extension that generated personalized daily worksheets for patient assignment in August 2008. Functionality was added to the worksheets by leveraging embedded SCM order filters to [...]

Background: Point of care resources have become readily available making it potentially possible to make clinical decisions at the bedside with the best evidence‐based medicine. Several factors are important when selecting a decision‐supporting source; these include ease of use, accuracy, quantity, current information and timely results. These factors contribute to a physician’s overall satisfaction with [...]