Background: Sickle cell disease (SCD) affects about 100,000 people in the US. The disease causes significant mortality, morbidity and frequent hospitalizations secondary to primary manifestations of the disease and its complications. We conducted a retrospective, single institution study in adult patients (pts), ≥ 18 years with SCD to assess factors associated with health care utilization [...]

Background: Sickle cell disease (SCD) causes frequent painful episodes from vaso-occlusion. As hospitalists, we identified that SCD patients occupied a large number of hospital days. Undertreatment and lack of standardization of pain management was a likely reason for this. Many of these patients are opiate dependent at baseline. Varying levels of comfort amongst hospitalists in [...]

Case Presentation: An 18 year-old Hispanic female presented to a tertiary care center with six days of left-sided flank pain and gross hematuria. Upon further questioning, she additionally endorsed  two to three months of generalized malaise and unprovoked weight loss totaling eight pounds. She had been discharged from a nearby hospital one day prior to [...]