Background: Hospitalists encounter problems daily in their clinical practice but do not routinely engage in problem solving independently. Problems are often brought to the attention of hospital medicine leadership, but this does not support hospitalist engagement in process analysis and implementation of solutions. A reason for hospitalist disengagement is a lack of a standardized and [...]

Background: Readmission rate at UMASS Memorial Hospital medicine division is high at 15.5%. Majority of patients are admitted to Hospitalist service. Given the challenges in obtaining real time readmission data, physician engagement is poor. Etiology of most of the readmissions gets attributed to system related issues. To improve physician engagement, the concept of weekly Idea [...]

Case Presentation: A 22-year-old woman presented after an episode of syncope and chest pain. The patient reported weight loss and anorexia for 2 weeks and fever, fatigue, and chills for a few days prior to presentation. She had recently moved to Georgia from Missouri. She had no significant medical or family history. Initial workup showed [...]