Background: Beyond the well‐known complication of gout and nephroiithiasis, there is a mounting body of evidence that hyperuricemia is associated with hypertension and chronic renal disease and is an independent risk factor for coronary artery disease. It is less clear that treating hyperuricemia leads to better outcomes. Hyperuricemia has been shown in some studies to […]

Background: Low health literacy is associated with poor understanding of medication instructions and, in some studies, with lower medication adherence, We developed and evaluated a 3‐part system intervention intended to increase refill adherence through attention to health literacy. The intervention consisted of automated telephone reminder calls to refill prescriptions, a pictorial medication instruction card (“picture […]

Background: Patients often do not understand or recall information presented during their hospitalization. Poor physician–patient communication in the hospital setting is related to adverse events and readmissions. In outpatient research, health literacy is strongly associated with patients' understanding of health information, but inpatient data are limited. We analyzed patients' ratings of their communication experience during […]

Background: Vancomycin is commonly used in an empiric antimicrobial regimen. Clinical pharmacy at our institution has defined therapeutic vancomycin troughs in accordance with the existing literature. Still, there is no centralized protocol for initiation of vancomycin therapy. Because it takes several days to obtain a steady‐state vancomycin trough after initiating therapy and a delay in […]

Background: Our tertiary‐care academic hospital allocates low‐risk chest pain admissions without evidence of acute coronary syndrome (ACS) to either a nonteaching observation service staffed by hospitalists and nurse‐practitioners or a teaching cardiology service staffed by cardiology attendings, fellows, and house staff, Methods: A retrospective cohort chart review was performed on chest pain admissions over a […]

Background: Hospitalists have the potential to interact with inpatient staff nurses more frequently than physicians who also provide ambulatory care. Despite the existence of this specialty for more than a decade and its burgeoning numbers, the impact of the hospitalist model on the relationship of physicians with inpatient staff nurses has yet to be rigorously […]

Background: Many large hospital medicine groups utilize nurse case managers to enhance efficiency and extend the capability of hospitalists to manage larger volumes of patients. As part of an ongoing time–work flow study, we evaluated the impact of implementing use of a nurse care coordinator (NCC) on hospitalists' activities and how this altered the distribution […]

Background: Working without support from residents, hospitalists anecdotally spend a great deal of time and effort coordinating care planning among different physician specialties, nurses, ancillary staff, and other health care professionals. Ultimately responsible for the successful execution of the care plan, hospitalists also serve as the primary contact for both patients and their families during […]

Background: Staffing and resource availability in hospitals diminish from day to night. Also, patients admitted at night are often passed off to a new care team in the morning. The impact of this discontinuity on patient care is unknown. Our aim was to compare quality outcomes in patients admitted during the day versus those admitted […]

Background: Childhood obesity confers a substantial risk of adult obesity, lifelong health risks, and social and economic disadvantages. BMI has been the standard as a reliable indicator of overweight and obese children. In 2005, the Institute of Medicine defined a BMI% > 95% for age as obese and BMI% > 85% as overweight. Obesity appears […]