Case Presentation: A 45‐year‐old man with diabetes mellitus and hypertension presented with acute renal failure and multiple lesions on his penis and lower extremities. His presenting creatinine was 18, blood urea nitrogen 150, calcium 5.9, phosphorus 16.1, and parathyroid hormone 217 (12–65 normal). Hemodialysis was initiated immediately. He had a black ulcerated lesion on the […]

Case Presentation: A 38‐year old Ethiopian man with a history of HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria was admitted to our institution for evaluation of progressively altered mental status. The patient immigrated from Ethiopia 2 weeks prior to presentation and developed symptoms within a day of his arrival. In addition to his confusion, nausea/vomiting, imbalance and incontinence […]

Case Presentation: A 32‐year‐old woman presented to the emergency department with 2 days of diplopia, worsening headache, pharyngitis, and lethargy. She also reported at that time 1 month of abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. She denied any recent travel, sick contacts, or chemical exposure. On the evening of admission, she described dysphagia and hydrophobia […]

Case Presentation: A 40‐year‐old G9P8 Yemeni woman with hypertension and diabetes mellitus at 32 weeks of pregnancy presented to the emergency room with 11 days of left otalgia and facial droop. She also had intermittent tinnitus and gradual hearing loss over the last several years. On presentation she was hypertensive at 150/89 and otherwise had […]

Case Presentation: A 70‐year‐old man presented to the emergency department with a recent 15‐pound weight loss over 2 months and hearing loss in this right ear. Medical history was significant for hypertension and coronary artery disease. Medications included aspirin, simvastatin, lisinopril, and hydralazine (100 mg twice daily). Initial evaluation was notable for bilateral episcleritis, acute renal […]

Background: Hospital care consumes a large percentage of U.S. health care costs, yet providers practicing in the hospital are often unaware of the actual costs of the diagnostic tests they order. We hypothesized that displaying the actual cost of the diagnostic test at the time of order entry would enhance provider awareness that their orders […]

Background: Acute lung injury (ALI) is a common cause of respiratory failure among hospitalized patients. Large studies have been limited to patients requiring mechanical ventilation, and little is known about non–mechanically ventilated adults with ALI. We sought to compare the clinical outcomes of non–mechanically ventilated patients with those of those requiring mechanical ventilation (MV) on […]

Background: Acute lung injury (ALI) is a frequently fatal cause of respiratory failure among hospitalized patients, and a practical and easily obtainable prognostic index at the time of ALI diagnosis is needed for risk prediction. The utility of current prognostic indexes is limited, as they cannot be generated on presentation, and they contain components not […]

Background: The Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services requires that a discharge summary be completed only within 30 days of discharge. This rule is inadequate to ensure safe care transitions, as outpatient physicians must receive more timely information regarding a patient's hospital course. We describe the implementation of an electronic discharge summary (EDCS) and report […]

Background: Ultrasonography (US) has improved the yield of bedside invasive procedures over the last decade; however, unsuccessful procedures still occur. As benchmarks for the yield of procedures using US are limited, we aimed to quantify and review unsuccessful procedures done by the hospitalist procedure service (HPS) at the University of California, San Francisco, in its […]