Background: Rapid response teams (RRTs) are a recent occurrence. There has been exponential growth in the number of RRTs in the United States and internationally. Discussion has ensued regarding their merit. The purpose of RRTs is to decrease the morbidity and mortality of hospitalized patients and increase in‐hospital cardiac arrest survival. The Joint Commission and […]

Background: Gender disparities in academic medicine are well-documented. In many current academic settings, decisions regarding faculty promotion, teaching time, and pay are influenced by performance evaluations. As a result, it is crucial to understand how evaluations may be impacted by gender bias. There are three aims to this study: 1) assess for differences in the […]

Case Presentation: A 38‐year‐old otherwise healthy Laotian refugee presented with a week of fevers, cough, and hemoptysis. He had initially been treated for pneumonia but soon developed progressive headache, somnolence, and myoclonic jerks. Basic labs were normal except for an eosinophil count of 600,000/mm3. A noncontrast brain computed tomography (CT) demonstrated periventricular hemorrhage and hydrocephalus […]

Background: Intravenous (IV) low molecular weight iron dextran is a safe and effective treatment for iron deficiency anemia (1). However, oral (PO) iron supplementation remains a preferred mode of iron repletion due to low cost and ease of administration. Unfortunately, the efficacy of PO iron varies due to differences in drug absorption and patient adherence. […]

Background: Length of stay (LOS) is a key metric that hospitals follow closely for quality and operational purposes. Hospital Medicine groups frequently use LOS to evaluate their providers and to identify opportunities for improvement; however, the most appropriate methods to apply specific hospital encounters to individual providers is debated. Complex schemes of weighted Observed to […]

Case Presentation: A 43‐year‐old African American man presented to the emergency department with a 1‐week history fever up to 104°F and worsening frontal headaches. For 6 months prior to presentation, he had had intermittent episodes of fevers. His primary care doctor had treated him with multiple courses of amoxicillin‐clavulanate for sinusitis without full resolution of […]

Background: For academic hospital medicine groups to thrive and be partners with their hospital systems, physicians must document and bill appropriately as a means of demonstrating their clinical value. Yet, many major academic hospital medicine groups may be unaware or receive little training for this very important skill set. Based on data from the Society […]

Case Presentation: A 65‐year‐old man with a medical history of hypertension, tobacco use, a recent L3–L5 laminectomy, and posterior spinal fusion was hospitalized with fever, dyspnea, and pleuritic chest pain of 2 days' duration. A month prior to this admission he had q laminectomy with spinal fusion that was later complicated by MRSA wound infection. […]