Background: Trauma co-management is a growing field within hospital medicine. While improvements in quality metrics have been documented in other co-management services, the impact of co-management of trauma patients is uncertain. This study aimed to determine whether a hospitalist trauma co-management program improves clinical outcomes. Methods: This was a pre- and post-implementation study comparing trauma […]

Background: Delirium is a common and costly occurrence in hospitalized patients, particularly elderly patients. Diagnosing delirium can be challenging, particularly given the fluctuating nature of presentation and subtle hypoactive motor subtypes. The Brief Confusion Assessment Method (bCAM) is a delirium screening tool that has been validated for use in the med-surg clinical area. As part […]

Background: Hospitalized patients have trouble identifying doctors on their primary inpatient team. Patients report a lack of understanding among the different roles of interns, residents, and attendings. Studies report improved satisfaction of patients who could recall their physicians' names. This study examines the relationship between patient satisfaction and improved patient education regarding primary inpatient team […]

Background: Although many older adults will be hospitalized in their lifetime, most do not consider or plan ahead for their post-hospitalization support needs. When older adults experience a hospitalization, families often must react to the crisis leaving the older adult out of the decision process (e.g. choosing a skilled nursing facility, caregivers). With PCORI funding, […]

Background: Hospital practices have increasingly utilized nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs) to supplement provider support. However, standard interview formats have historically lacked the sensitivity to distinguish candidates with the unique aptitude for the specialty and are subject to biases with inadequate reliability and reproducibility. Medical simulation has been shown to successfully provide a […]

Background: The relation of a patient’s age to survival in cardiac arrest is often discussed at the bedside when clinicians, patients, and families are faced with the question of whether CPR is medically appropriate for elderly individuals. Few studies are available to help guide this conversation. This study sought to evaluate in-hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA) […]

Background: Early intervention has been shown to change outcomes in patients with sepsis. Patients on general medical units often develop and suffer complications from sepsis, but it is unclear if we identify these patients soon enough in order for them to benefit from early intervention. The purpose of this study was to evaluate if a […]

Background: More than two million people are evaluated for syncope each year in the United States, and approximately 30-40% of these patients are hospitalized for further costly investigation. Total annual cost of syncope related hospital evaluation is estimated to be over 2 billion dollars. The most common cause of syncope is reflex mediated. It does […]

Background: Continuous infusions of unfractionated heparin (UFH) are still commonly used in the initial treatment of venous thromboembolism (VTE). As a result of UFH's high‐risk profile and common usage, weight‐based UFH nomograms were developed more than 2 decades ago to standardize its dosing. Since that time, there has been scant literature on improving UFH administration. […]

Background: The ability to effectively practice consultative medicine is increasingly important. The increase in medical specialization, as well as an increasing number of providers responsible for patient care, makes this particularly evident in inpatient settings. Indeed, a dedicated consultation rotation is required of every internal medicine residency program. Few formal curricula for teaching consultative medicine […]