Background: There is growing interest in point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) for addressing clinical questions at the bedside, particularly in the intensive care unit (ICU), where it is widely used by intensivists. This trend has prompted education initiatives for residents across various specialties, including internal medicine, emergency medicine, anesthesia, and pediatrics. While several studies focus on training [...]

Background: Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is a powerful bedside tool utilized by hospitalists to care for patients, with wide-ranging applications including aiding clinical diagnosis, monitoring response to therapy, and guiding performance of invasive procedures.1-4 Despite its published benefits, POCUS adoption by hospitalists has lagged behind other specialties, in part due to inconsistent training experiences across internal [...]

Background: Lumbar punctures (LPs) are common among hospitalized patients and many institutions have implemented a hospital medicine procedure services (HMPS) to perform these routine bedside procedures. Most clinicians learn to perform this procedure using the midline (ML), landmark-guided approach which involves palpation of the lumbar spine but this technique is associated with failure rates as [...]

Background: Mounting evidence supports the use of point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) in medicine and pediatrics to improve outcomes, maximize patient safety, and increase patient satisfaction and success of procedures.The literature describes the utility of POCUS in several areas of pediatric care (the emergency department, pediatric and neonatal intensive care unit, and post-acute care setting), however, we [...]

Background: Gastric Point-of-Care Ultrasound (POCUS), has been validated for perioperative pulmonary aspiration risk reduction, but data on medical inpatients is lacking (1). Inpatients often have multiple risk factors for delayed gastric emptying, but may need urgent surgery or procedures. According to the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA), a fasting period of 2, 6, and 8 [...]

Background: The use of point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) by hospitalists is rapidly evolving and is variable between hospital medicine groups and individuals. Although POCUS has been shown to increase patient satisfaction in the emergency department and primary care settings, little is known about hospitalized patients’ perspectives on POCUS in their care. POCUS allows patients the opportunity [...]

Background: The scope of Point-of-Care Ultrasound (POCUS) use in hospital medicine continues to expand. Despite the noted benefits in diagnostic accuracy, the use of POCUS in hospital medicine is varied. A prospective study of hospitalists in 2022 showed that diagnostic POCUS use has increased nationally for cardiac, pulmonary, and abdominal applications. The most common barrier [...]

Background: Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is an invaluable clinical tool gaining traction as more physicians recognize its utility. However, pediatric residency programs lag behind internal medicine (IM) and emergency medicine in incorporating formal POCUS training. A survey of 90 programs found that 37.5% of IM and 43.5% of medicine-pediatrics (MP) programs offered formal curricula, compared to [...]

Background: POCUS is rapidly becoming an important tool in Hospital Medicine (HM) and is endorsed by the Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM).​Many medical schools and physician residency programs have recognized the clinical value of POCUS and subsequently come to incorporate competency as a core clinical skill for graduation.APP programs, however, have lagged behind with only [...]

Background: Over 1 million patients are hospitalized in the United States yearly for pneumonia, of which 40% develop parapneumonic effusion. Left untreated, these effusions can progress to complex effusions requiring more invasive treatment, including tube thoracostomy and surgical decortication, increasing hospital length of stay and overall morbidity. In patients with complex parapneumonic effusion, intrapleural lytic [...]