Background: Echocardiography is an essential evaluation in the diagnosis of infectious endocarditis (IE). Transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) is a portable study that is widely available and non-invasive. Though transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) is traditionally known for higher sensitivity and specificity, it is speculated that improvements in modern TTE imaging could produce higher diagnostic yield than previously thought. [...]

Background: Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is nothing less than a paradigm shift in patient care. The technology has advanced rapidly and the competence in performing, interpreting and utilizing POCUS is extremely variable. There is often an inversion in competence with medical students and residents, in general, having more competence in this modality than many of their [...]

Background: Ventilator associated pneumonia (VAP) is the leading cause of death from nosocomial infections in critically-ill patients. The CDC recommends maintaining Head-of-Bed (HOB) elevation at a target recumbency range of 30º-45º due to evidence that a semi-recumbent position significantly reduces VAP. Current methods for evaluating patient recumbency utilize “eyeballing” or built-in HOB protractors, which are [...]

Background: Sepsis is one of the top causes of inpatient mortality and rapid detection presents numerous challenges. In March, 2016, an interdisciplinary team consisting of top clinicians, data scientists and machine learning experts at a large academic medical center (AMC) embarked on an innovation pilot to develop a novel machine learning model to detect sepsis. [...]

Background: As of 2017, 96% of non-federal acute care hospitals had an electronic health record (EHR). Hospitalists interact with the EHR for several hours each day. Many studies have suggested a direct correlation between physician burnout and frustrations with the EHR. Data has been published regarding physician time studies in the outpatient setting, but there [...]

Background: Rifaximin 550 mg tablets is a nonsystemic antibiotic indicated for reducing the risk of overt hepatic encephalopathy (HE) recurrence in adults and may be used in combination with lactulose. Practice guidelines state that rifaximin is effective as add-on therapy to lactulose for preventing overt HE recurrence. This pooled analysis evaluated the efficacy and safety [...]

Background: The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality recommends a structured, patient-centered discharge communication process. To create patient-centered discharge communication, it is vital to understand the information that patients value upon discharge. Little is known about how patients prioritize discharge information; therefore, our objective was to determine the perceptions of hospitalized patients about the relative [...]

Background: In response to a national movement toward increasing value in health care, hospitals are seeking to better support patients after discharge. Older patients with functional limitations are frequently referred to receive home health care services at hospital discharge, including skilled nursing and therapy. Caregivers of patients with functional limitations receiving often have a key [...]

Background: Admitted Hematologic and Oncologic patients are often complex and have a unique set of challenges. Balancing outpatient care plans with inpatient medical and psychosocial issues can lead to long lengths of stay, patient dissatisfaction, and provider burnout. Hospitalists offer an expertise in managing complex medical problems along with an adept ability to integrate and [...]

Background: Advancement of patient care can necessitate inter-hospital transfers to another facility. The inter-hospital transferring process can pose inherent risks to the patient due to the transition of care, as well as increase overall cost for the healthcare system. Reviewing cases of mortality after inter-hospital transfer can identify opportunities to improve patient safety and efficiency [...]