Background: Delays in the discharge of the hospital ward patients cause a backlog for new admissions from the Emergency Department, and transfers from the Intensive Care Units and telemetry units. This bottleneck unnecessarily increases overall resource utilization and also negatively impacts patient care and satisfaction. Therefore, our Internal Medicine Residency Program aimed through this quality [...]

Background: Nurse-physician teamwork is a critical determinant of outcomes among hospitalized patients. Although improvement interventions have been designed for specific settings (eg, intensive care units and operating rooms), less attention has been given to nurse-physician teamwork in hospital medicine. Therefore, our goal was to assess the quality and effectiveness of interventions for improving nurse-physician teamwork [...]

Background: For patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) who undergo percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), antithrombotic therapy including oral anticoagulants (OAC) and antiplatelets are indicated. The optimal combination is not known. We investigated the efficacy and safety of different antithrombotic strategies in patients with AF undergoing PCI. Methods: PUBMED and EMBASE were searched through September 2019 for [...]

Background: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is defined as a sleep disorder marked by pauses in breathing of 10 seconds or more causing unrestful sleep and accompanied by loud or abnormal snoring, daytime sleepiness, irritability, and depression. According to the National Sleep Foundation, more than 18 million Americans have OSA, 80% of whom are undiagnosed. The [...]

Background: In 2011, ~3.3 million adult 30-day US hospital readmissions generated $41.3 billion in hospital costs. $8.26 billion (20%) of this was considered preventable. Numerous studies demonstrate relationships between hospital readmissions and social determinants of health (SDoH). Lack of education, socioeconomic status, and lack of social support have all been cited as core contributors to [...]

Background: Neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) occurs when an infant is exposed to chemical substances in utero and consequently withdrawals from the substance(s) after birth. The long-term impact of NAS remains unclear due to confounding by other factors that impact infant health and development, but literature suggests that infants with NAS have motor and cognitive delays [...]