Background: To curb the growing opioid epidemic, hospitalists need to re-examine inpatient opioid use and increase utilization of alternatives to opioids for pain management. Of 1.1 million nonsurgical inpatients across 286 US hospitals from July 2009 to June 2010, 51% received an opioid during hospitalization and more than half with inpatient exposure were prescribed opioids […]

Background: As the day progresses, clinicians may experience decision fatigue that impairs clinical reasoning. Such impairment may exert its greatest effects on clinicians’ abilities to identify and effectively treat heterogeneous clinical syndromes with high diagnostic uncertainty, including sepsis. We therefore examined the association of time of day with antibiotic initiation among hospitalized ward patients with […]

Background: The transition in care from hospital to ambulatory setting is a vulnerable period for patients. Nearly 1 in 5 medical patients suffer an adverse event within 3 weeks of discharge and 1 in 2 discharged patients suffer a medication or lab monitoring error (1,2). Such errors contribute to 30-day rehospitalization rate of 19.6% in […]

Background: Cryptogenic organizing pneumonia (COP) is an idiopathic form of organizing pneumonia. The exact incidence, prevalence and pathogenesis are unknown. This retrospective study aims to reveal the prevalence of COP in hospitalized population and to investigate the odds ratio (OR) of COP in connective tissue disease (CTD) of interest including rheumatoid arthritis (RA), systemic lupus […]

Background: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a leading cause for liver cirrhosis and one of the commonest indications for liver transplantation. The introduction of direct acting antiviral (DAA) medications have revolutionized the treatment for HCV. Prior to 2014, the treatment for HCV consisted of interferon and ribavirin which yielded a sustained virologic response (SVR) of […]

Background: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is among the top three leading causes of hospital readmissions in the United States. Acute Exacerbation of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease(AECOPD) is associated with increased morbidity, mortality, and cost with AECOPD accounting for more than half of the 15.5 billion USD spent on COPD[1,2]. In this project, we aim […]

Background: As many as 3.7% of patients experience preventable adverse events in health care facilities nationwide. Patient safety requires both effective training methods and an interprofessional culture of safety. The “Room of Hazards” is a simulation developed to assess skills in identification of safety hazards amongst staff of different health care disciplines. Methods: In our […]

Background: Korean children are often treated in intensive care units (ICUs) rather than in pediatric intensive care units (PICUs). However, pediatric critical care (PCC) in ICUs other than in PICUs may have an effect on patient outcome. The objective of this study is to compare the PCC outcomes of pediatric patients in the PICU than […]

Background: The ACGME instituted duty hour restrictions in 2003, leading to re-organization and re-structuring of resident schedules and educational opportunities. In response to these regulations, many programs, including our institution, initiated night float rotations. After noting decreased resident attendance at didactic sessions due to this model, our institution implemented various interventions to offer educational opportunities […]

Background: Mortality and morbidity (M&M) rounds have traditionally been held to allow physicians to discuss adverse events and medical errors. In our hospital, M&M rounds are conducted by individual departments, selected from mortality cases and discussions are centred around a diagnosis or topic. There is increasing recognition that this is a missed opportunity for teaching […]