Background: Bedside nurses often communicate via alphanumeric (text) paging with hospitalists and other providers. To help the nurse and provider triage the urgency of these messages, our institution has implemented a tiered paging labeling system based on message priority, but the use of this labeling system and the concordance between provider perception and nurse perception [...]

Background: Consultation among providers is a foundation of modern health care and a very frequent means of interdisciplinary communication. Classifying consultation requests can facilitate clear communication between providers and across medical specialties, improve workflow, provider satisfaction and ultimately patient care. We previously proposed an organizing framework of 7 specific consultation types: ideal, obligatory, procedural, S.O.S., [...]

Case Presentation: A 62-year-old female presented with a two-week history of right upper quadrant abdominal pain radiating to the back. Her pain was described as sharp and intermittent and associated with subjective fever, nausea, vomiting, headache, and dizziness. On examination, the patient was hypertensive but afebrile. Abdominal tenderness was noted in the right upper quadrant [...]