Background: The approach to managing and admitting patients with syncope in an emergency setting lacks standardization. Our study aims to investigate how regional variation in management of emergency department (ED) patients presenting with syncope impacts outcomes and resource utilization in this patient population. Methods: We used the 2006 to 2014 Nationwide Emergency Department Sample to [...]

Background: In the United States, the relative incidence of diverticulitis has continued to rise and represents a significant portion of gastrointestinal related hospitalizations [1]. Management and treatment can include both medical and surgical options. Of recent, considerable attention has been given to try to decrease healthcare utilization [2]. We sought out to determine the annual [...]

Background: Hospital discharges due to psychotropics poisoning whether intentional, unintentional, prescription errors or related side effects have been increasing nationally. Hospital costs are also increasing subsequently. We compared the annual rate of hospital discharges in 4 regions of United States (West, Midwest, South, and Northeast) while incorporating the number of the mental health providers in [...]

Background: Care fragmentation is associated with a number of clinical and socio-demographic features which have been thought to increase hospital utilization as well as morbidity and mortality. Patients who receive fragmented care at the hospital level are often underinsured and uninsured. It is unclear to what degree lack of insurance and subsequently lack of continuous [...]

Background: Asthma, bronchiolitis, and pneumonia are common pediatric inpatient diagnoses. Viral testing (VT) is not routinely necessary for these diagnoses as it often does not impact management. Our study objectives for each diagnosis are to; 1) describe trends in VT over the last 5 years including seasonal variation (respiratory season- Oct-March versus non-respiratory season- April-Sept), [...]

Background: Catheter associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI) are one of the most common hospital acquired infections and cost on average $13,793 per case according to the AHRQ. Many quality and safety organizations including the Society of Hospital Medicine recommend reducing the prevalence of indwelling urinary catheters (IUC) as a means to reduce the incidence of [...]

Background: In March 2019, the CEO of our public teaching hospital set a goal for the institution to become a high reliability organization. At that time, the hospital’s rates of catheter associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs), central line associated blood stream infections (CLABSIs), and hospital acquired pressure injuries (HAPIs) were above the national average. Evaluation [...]

Background: Catheter Associated Urinary Tract Infection (CAUTI) is the most common hospital acquired infection and constitutes upto 40% of all Healthcare Associated Infections. Urinary catheter is used in 15% to 25% of hospitalized patients and often utilized for inappropriate indications. Daily risk of Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) is 3 to 7% with the use of [...]

Background: While multiple organizations have recommended reducing unnecessary and repetitive lab tests in hospitalized patients, this has not resulted in a widespread change in behavior. There is agreement that unwarranted labs increase costs, but data around specific lab costs have not been readily available. At baseline, there were 125,586 labs ordered by the UNC Rex [...]

Case Presentation: A 28-year old Vietnamese man who has sex with men (MSM) with recent diagnosis of AIDS, on antiretroviral therapy (ART), presented to the hospital with 1 month of fevers associated with headaches, night sweats, anorexia, and diarrhea. He was born in Vietnam but moved to the United States 2 years prior to presentation [...]