Background: In 2013, the American Academy of Pediatrics’ position statement, “Guiding Principles for Pediatric Hospital Medicine (PHM) Programs,” emphasized the importance of professional development for each PHM physician. However, little is published about PHM physicians’ perspectives on professional development. The objectives of this study were to explore pediatric hospitalists’ perceptions of professional development needs, desired [...]

Background: Adolescents have poor access to preventive care and outpatient providers face many barriers to addressing sexual health with adolescents. Recent literature advises providers to address sexual health in nontraditional settings including emergency department (ED) visits and hospitalizations. In our previous work we identified missed opportunities to address sexual health on the hospital medicine service, [...]

Background: The care of surgical patients is becoming more complex as patients with increasing comorbidities require surgical procedures. In adult hospital medicine, co-management of complex medical patients by hospital medicine and surgery has been shown to decrease length of stay and readmission for many procedures. It remains unclear, however, which patients are most likely to [...]

Background: Due to their widespread availability, inflammatory markers are used with increasing frequency, often concurrently, without adding any diagnostic or clinical benefit1,2. While unnecessary labs do not offer any additional benefit, they can be a significant source of physical and emotional distress to patients and their families3-5. In an era that emphasizes high-value, low-cost medical [...]

Background: Infants ≤ 60 days of age with a urinary tract infection (UTI) represent a challenging population without clear guidelines for diagnostic evaluation or antibiotic therapy. UTI represents a significant percentage of serious bacterial infection in this age group and is a common management dilemma for pediatricians. Our study examined patterns of UTI management in [...]

Background: The Joint Commission (TJC) included medication reconciliation (MedRec) as a 2005 National Patient Safety Goal to reduce errors related to medication omissions, duplications and interactions. Medication errors and harms continue to be one of the most widely reported healthcare problems. TJC’s sentinel event database includes > 350 medication errors resulting in death or major [...]

Case Presentation: A 9-year-old female presented with two months of hyperpigmented skin and stiffness mainly in her lower extremities. She had difficulty brushing her hair and walking accompanied by weight loss and dyspnea. On examination, diffuse hyperpigmentation and peau d’orange skin changes were observed with the “groove sign” on her right medial thigh. She also [...]

Case Presentation: A two–year-old previously healthy boy presented with the chief complaint of acute onset left-sided weakness in the setting of recent fever and upper respiratory symptoms. Admission exam was notable for left-sided facial droop, weakness of upper and lower extremities, and inability to walk. Initial CT head was notable for a right basal ganglia [...]

Background: Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is a growing interest in pediatric hospital medicine, however few Pediatric Hospital Medicine (PHM) fellowships incorporate POCUS training formally into their curriculum. In addition to its ability to expedite care, POCUS can improve the ability of pediatric hospitalists to take care of patients in resource-limited settings or when specialists are not [...]

Background: In 2023, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) proposed changes to Pediatric Residency programs allowing for greater individualization of resident experiences and increased ambulatory care time. The ACGME changes may lead some institutions to expand pediatric hospital medicine (PHM) services to provide coverage of hospitalized children previously cared for by residents. We [...]