Background: Consultation in hospital is an important tool for acquiring subspecialty support when managing patients with acute congestive heart failure (CHF). The effect of consult utilization on hospital outcomes and resource utilization of acute CHF is unknown.   Methods: Discharge data was obtained for patients discharged with a principal diagnosis of acute CHF over 3 [...]

Background:   Congestive heart failure (CHF) and pneumonia are amongst the leading causes of hospitalization in the United States.  Although a growing number of hospitals use both teaching and nonteaching hospitalist services for patient care, the differences in clinical outcomes and efficiency between these two services is not clearly known. The aim of this study [...]

Background: Inpatient admissions for Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) represent a substantial economic burden within the US healthcare system with patients experiencing high rates of 30-day readmission and mortality. To more efficiently and effectively serve complex cardiovascular (CV) patients at a major cardiac care center, Intermountain Health created a dedicated CV hospitalist service which has expanded [...]

Background:   Congestive heart failure is a leading cause of hospitalization in adults greater than 65 years old. It is estimated that over 1 million people are hospitalized annually with a primary diagnosis of heart failure. Given the challenges of heart failure management, readmission within 30 days of hospital discharge is estimated to be 24%. [...]

Background: Previous work at our major academic medical center found that compared to White patients, Black and Latinx patients with a primary diagnosis of congestive heart failure (CHF) were significantly less likely to be admitted to our specialized cardiology service rather than our general medicine service (GMS). This work additionally found that CHF patients admitted [...]

Background: Appropriate documentation of Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) specificity is still a major documentation problem in most hospitals in the United States despite the frequent presence of Clinical Documentation Improvement Specialists (CDIs) to assist with chart reviews and appropriate documentation/coding.  We are a large hospitalist division providing care at 2 large tertiary care facilities in [...]

Background: Patients (pts) with congestive heart failure (CHF) are at an increased risk for community-acquired bacterial pneumonia (CABP) [1]. Moreover, CABP itself and macrolide antibiotics, which current guidelines recommend for CABP treatment [2], are both associated with increased risk of cardiac events, including worsening heart failure [3,4]. Lefamulin (LEF) is a first-in-class systemic pleuromutilin antibiotic [...]

Background: Avoiding preventable readmissions is a major goal of health care systems nationwide1. The Cardiorespiratory cohort consists of Veterans admitted with a diagnosis of CHF, COPD and non-COVID-19 Pneumonia, and is a high-risk group for readmissions. As part of a larger National VA High Reliability Organization (HRO) Collaborative2, an interdisciplinary team was launched to achieve [...]

Background: Congestive heart failure (CHF) is a major cause of mortality and morbidity among general population despite recent advancements in goal-directed therapies. The advent of mechanical circulatory devices, the increased availability and improvement in heart transplant techniques have improved some metrics; however, CHF patients continue to have multiple readmissions for acute exacerbations. The frequency of [...]

Case Presentation: A 73 year-old man with type 2 diabetes mellitus (hemoglobin A1c 7.5), hypertension, hyperlipidemia, chronic renal failure stage 3a, and a distant 10 pack year smoking history presented with 2 weeks of substernal chest tightness and dyspnea on exertion. He was hemodynamically stable without tachypnea at rest. Examination revealed a grade 2/6 holosystolic [...]