Background: Patients hospitalized with COVID-19 can clinically deteriorate in the second week of illness after a period of initial stability. Thus, an important clinical question is determining when it is safe to discharge these patients from the hospital without overwhelming hospitals’ capacities. Unfortunately, discharge criteria for COVID-19 patients are often based on expert opinion, with [...]

Background: Survivors of hospitalization for COVID-19 are potentially at high risk for subsequent psychiatric morbidity due to medical trauma, systemic inflammation, and potential neurotropism of SARS-CoV-2(1). In addition, social isolation during the hospital stay due to restrictive visitor policies and after discharge due to fears of contagion or stay-at-home orders could further increase psychiatric vulnerability [...]

Background: Hospitalizations to treat SARS-CoV-2 infected patients have strained health systems worldwide. Monitored outpatient management of select low-risk COVID-19 patients with isolated exertional hypoxia could help preserve hospital resources and reduce costs while aiming to maintain a high standard of care. In this retrospective cohort analysis, we aimed to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of [...]

Background: Early risk stratification scores utilizing data available at the bedside have been used regularly to identify patients at greatest risk of poor outcomes from rapidly evolving conditions like sepsis. Little is known about how point-of-care scores developed for sepsis perform at predicting outcomes in large, heterogeneous cohorts of patients with COVID-19. Our objective was [...]

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated rapid changes in healthcare delivery in the United States, including changes in the care of hospitalized children. Our study aimed to identify the major changes in inpatient pediatric healthcare delivery and potential learnings from these changes. Methods: We conducted semi-structured interviews for this qualitative study. We purposefully sampled hospitals [...]

Background: As a result of COVID-19, clinical care across the U.S. has changed with virtual services becoming the new normal in many clinics.1-5 How these changes impact patient care following hospitalization is unclear as data are limited.6 We report on characteristics and rates of clinic follow up and satisfaction with care in patients discharged during [...]

Background: Literature on the prognostic value of laboratory tests on patients hospitalized with COVID-19 is sparse.1-4 Based on available evidence our institution developed a protocol for care of patients admitted with COVID-19. In addition to routine labs (complete blood count, complete metabolic panel, venous lactate, etc.), the protocol recommends a set of COVID-specific daily lab [...]

Background: Nationally, internal medicine (IM) residency programs have been struggling with the balance of protecting residents from exposure to COVID-19, ensuring they are sufficiently trained in general medicine while still teaching them about a new disease process and preparing them to help fight the pandemic (1). Anxiety is common amongst providers in a pandemic, especially [...]

Background: Patient and family experience have become increasingly important to the hospital community, whereby exceptional patient and family experience is the common ground for all six aims of quality care as defined by the Institute of Medicine in Crossing the Quality Chasm — care that is patient centered, safe, effective, timely, efficient, and equitable (1). [...]

Case Presentation: Patient is a 45-year-old female with a history of esophageal reflux and dysmotility, asthma, depression/anxiety, and recent SARS-2-CoV infection (COVID-19) who presented to our hospital 9 months after initial and 3 months after recurrent COVID-19 with headache, dyspnea, and home blood pressures (BP) > 180/100. Patient reported intermittent symptoms for the last 3 [...]