Case Presentation: A 58-year-old male presented to the emergency department with a twelve-hour history of sudden, painless and progressive left sided loss of vision following the consumption of tadalafil 20mg tablet for erectile dysfunction. He denied loss of consciousness, seizures, dizziness, headache, slurred speech, palpitations, tinnitus, urinary or stool incontinence, recent trauma, recent changes in [...]

Case Presentation: We present an 80-year-old female with a medical history significant for atrial fibrillation and heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. She underwent pulmonary vein isolation in 2017 and had reportedly been on flecainide 150 mg twice daily and atenolol 100 milligram twice daily since then. She presented to the emergency department with dyspnea [...]

Background: Communication related to medications is an important metric on the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey to measure patient experience after discharge from the hospital. There are many factors which can lead to poor communication about medications (Figure 1). Over 20% of readmissions can be related to medications, and of [...]

Background: Opioid analgesia is an important treatment modality for patients with chronic pain, including pain attributed to cancer- and noncancer-related illness. Unfortunately, an estimated 40%–80% of opioid users experience opioid-induced constipation (OIC). Methylnaltrexone (MNTX) is indicated for the treatment of OIC. In clinical trials, the most common adverse events (AEs) were gastrointestinal (GI) in nature. [...]

Case Presentation: A 70-year-old male with a history of metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC) on cabozantinib and nivolumab presented with an extensive, blistering skin rash. He initially noted faint erythema and blisters over his right elbow a week ago which spread to his arms, hands and feet. His oncologist had prescribed high dose prednisone, however [...]

Case Presentation: A 55-year-old man presented with bilateral upper back pain with radiation to the upper chest for the past 1 month. On examination, he had left upper back tenderness. A CT of the chest revealed septic pulmonary emboli. Blood cultures drawn on admission speciated to methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Urine cultures speciated to MRSA [...]

Case Presentation: A 78-year-old male presented to the emergency department with past medical history of hypertension, hyperlipidemia, benign prostatic hyperplasia, and asthma presented to the emergency department with progressively worsening shortness of breath and substernal chest pain 2 days after undergoing Electrophysiology Studies (EPS), Radiofrequency Ablation (RFA) with pulmonary vein isolation (PVI), and Cavo-tricuspid isthmus [...]

Background: Adverse events (AEs) after discharge occur in 19–28% of hospitalized patients.(1) Understanding whether patient-reported and clinical factors from the electronic health record (EHR) can predict post-discharge AEs is increasingly important given the growing population of hospitalized adults with multiple chronic conditions (MCC) being discharged home. This AHRQ-funded study aimed to develop an interoperable prediction [...]

Background: Medical errors are the third leading cause of death in the United States yet physicians report minimal education on how to disclose errors and adverse events. To Err is Human shed light on the severity of errors. As a result, communication and resolution programs were developed over the past two decades to attempt to [...]

Background: The under-reporting of adverse events has been a significant issue in patient and healthcare staff safety, and prevents improvement of individual and systemic errors in healthcare. As champions for quality and safety in their institutions, it is essential hospitalists who work with housestaff  serve as role models to encourage trainees to report safety issues. [...]