Background: Point-of-Care Ultrasound (POCUS) is becoming an increasingly valuable tool in Internal Medicine. With the proper training, POCUS can provide insight into diagnostic dilemmas, resulting in expedited management and enhancing patient care. However, the ability to effectively utilize POCUS is directly related to the extent of each individual’s training. It is therefore critical to implement [...]

Background: Geriatric and palliative care patients who have been discharged from hospital and are home-limited face challenges in effectively accessing ongoing healthcare and clinical follow-up after being discharged, leaving them at risk for unnecessary re-hospitalization. Health care video visits present a novel opportunity to expand patient access to clinical care remotely in their home, potentially [...]

Background: Understanding communication between providers and patients is key to providing patient-centered care. We sought to determine if patient’s perception of time spent by physician at bedside is associated with patient satisfaction with physician communication. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional survey of patients admitted to the hospital medicine service. The survey included questions about patient’s [...]

Background: In the US, the increase in pre-existing maternal conditions and aging of the maternal population has resulted in a shift towards indirect causes of maternal morbidity and mortality. Indirect causes of morbidity and mortality result from previous existing disease or disease that developed during pregnancy and which were not due to direct obstetric causes, but which were [...]

Background: Hospital Medicine is a growing field and integral part of the evolving healthcare system. Hospitalists are challenged to provide high-quality, effective, and efficient care to complex hospitalized patients, which requires medical knowledge in evidence-based practices, the attitudes to work in interdisciplinary healthcare teams, and skills to perform safe transitions in care. Given the rapid [...]

Background: Disparities in compensation and leadership still exist for women and underrepresented minorities in medicine. While studies have identified factors that lead to and perpetuate these inequities, institutions still struggle with how to implement long needed change to support increased diversity in our work environments, leadership opportunities, and equitable compensation specific to these populations. Purpose: [...]

Background: In the primary care setting, up to one third of patients are categorized as complex, while this proportion is not well known in the hospital setting. By definition, complex patients demand more effort and/or resources and required care processes are not routine or standard. The treating physician’s complexity assessment is the gold standard, which [...]

Background: Issues with the quality and safety of hospital care have been well-documented, and serve as the basis for improvement strategies and research. However, what is less understood are the perspectives of patients, families, caregivers, and other stakeholders regarding what they feel are the most important targets of improvement research. We systematically engaged a broad [...]

Background: Academic hospitalists aspire to be highly effective teachers and must demonstrate excellence in teaching to be promoted. Internal Medicine (IM) residency programs increasingly rely on such hospitalists to supervise residents when they are on inpatient service. Accordingly, outstanding resident teaching and evaluations are imperative to the advancement of academic hospitalists and the success of [...]

Background: Specialty wards (e.g., cardiology or oncology wards) group clinically similar hospitalized patients in efforts to improve outcomes and costs. When these wards exceed capacity, subsequent patients overflow to “geographically dispersed” alternate wards. Geographic dispersion has been associated with care inefficiency and worse outcomes on specialty wards, but has not been studied in a large, [...]