Background: Spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP) is a commonly encountered complication of end stage liver disease that carries a high morbidity and mortality. Risk factors for SBP are defined by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) as a prior history of SBP, active gastrointestinal bleeding, and low ascites total protein (< 1.5 […]

Background: It has been reported that vaccination rates with pneumococcal vaccine are low in elderly persons in Japan. The primary aim of this study was to examine whether introduction of a vaccination status checkbox in electronic medical records increased the vaccination rates. Methods: Subjects were inpatients and outpatients in the Department of General Medicine at […]

Background: Physicians increasingly utilize electronic health records (EHR) to deliver healthcare, and the EHR has been identified as leading source of physician burnout and frustration [Shanafelt et al]. Studies report up to 52.6% of hospitalists exhibit symptoms of burnout [Roberts et al]. However, there is no data to inform how hospital medicine physicians spend their […]

Background: New Mexico has the highest number of alcohol-related deaths in the country, a title held since 1981. Nationally 1 in 10 deaths in working-aged adults are alcohol-associated whereas in New Mexico the ratio is 1 in 6 deaths. About 130,000 New Mexicans report alcohol dependence or abuse within the past year, but only 3% […]

Background: As inpatient medical care has increased in complexity and fragmentation, rounding has become siloed away from patients and by discipline, resulting in disjointed and inefficient care models. In response, hospitalist groups across the country have been implementing unit-based rounding programs to centralize communication and align work-flow of health care team members. At UC San […]