Background: For many patients, hospitalization involves substantial inactive time between provider visits, tests, and treatments. This time could be used to engage patients in discharge preparation by (1) learning about their health conditions and (2) learning to use their personal health record (PHR) to manage medications and postdischarge appointments. The ease of use of tablet […]

Background: In the United States, 32 million people have a documented penicillin allergy and up to 20% of hospitalized patients’ records describe a penicillin allergy (PcnA). Less than 10% of patients with reported penicillin allergy have true clinically relevant PcnA when objectively tested through rigorous skin testing (1-3). Clinicians subsequently avoid appropriate penicillin or penicillin […]

Background: Clostridium difficile infections (CDI) is the most common cause of healthcare-associated infections in the United States. CDI accounts for 15%- 25% of all cases of nosocomial diarrhea. CDI is associated with significant adverse outcomes such as higher inpatient mortality rate, a longer length of hospital stays and increased hospital costs. The incidence of Hospital-acquired […]

Case Presentation: A 64‐year‐old man presented with 12 days of altered mental status that began with a severe left‐sided headache and progressed to include expressive aphasia, unfamiliarity in well‐known places, falling, and fecal incontinence. He did not have fever or evidence of seizure activity. He had a history of migraines but had not had any […]

Case Presentation: A 70-year-old male with a medical history significant for transurethral resection of bladder tumor and lung adenocarcinoma presented with diaphoresis and subjective fever 4 days after undergoing an uncomplicated aortic extension cuff placement for an abdominal aortic aneurysm. The patient was hemodynamically stable. Labs notable for leukocytosis of 18.4X10E9 cells/liter. CT abdomen demonstrated […]

Case Presentation: This is a case of a 53 year old man with past medical history of Hodgkin’s disease s/p chemoradiation, intraabdominal desmoid tumor s/p resection, GERD, Chronic Kidney Disease and penicillin allergy who was admitted to the hospital with complaints of shortness of breath worsening over a period of 2 weeks. On admission he […]

Case Presentation: A 23‐year‐old Chinese woman with a 5‐year history of Graves’ disease (GD) was admitted for a newly diagnosed ovarian tumor. During workup for the tumor, computed tomography (CT) of the chest incidentally showed a large homogeneous anterior mediastinal opacity, 8.6 x 3.1 x 7.4 cm. Physical examination revealed a diffusely enlarged thyroid. Thyroid […]

Case Presentation: A 21-year-old male with past medical history of Crohn’s disease on monthly infliximab infusion initially presented to the emergency department with a 5-day history of joint pain. He first noted left-sided pain that was only relieved by heat, but it progressed to left hip and groin pain made worse with movement. The patient […]