Background: Fracture Liaison Services (FLS) are traditionally outpatient-based and led by orthopedists or endocrinologists. In the United States, over 1 million patients are hospitalized yearly with osteoporotic fractures and internal medicine hospitalists are frequently involved in their co-management. Purpose: Internal medicine hospitalists have an integral role in the prompt recognition and early treatment of patients [...]

Background: Hip fractures are one of the most common causes for surgery in the elderly and the burden of care extends beyond the perioperative period as many are discharged to a long-term facility and have significant morbidity and mortality despite advances in perioperative care. To date, trials of interventions and standardized multidisciplinary hip fracture programs [...]

Background: According to the CDC, at least 300,000 people older than 65 are hospitalized for hip fractures annually. Society of Hospital Medicine recognizes geriatric care as one of the core competencies, and hospitalists frequently provide care to geriatric hip fracture patients. Clearly hospitalists need to be competent providing care to such patients. Our goal was [...]

Background: The growth of oral muscle relaxant prescriptions among older adults in the U.S. raises safety concern. Baclofen is a commonly used gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) agonist muscle relaxant that is associated with encephalopathy. We aimed to compare the risk of fall and fracture associated with oral baclofen against other muscle relaxants (tizanidine or cyclobenzaprine) in [...]

Background: Although hip fractures in the elderly are largely due to osteoporosis, rates of treatment for osteoporosis after fragility fracture have been reported as

Background: More than 300,000 older adults are hospitalized in the US annually for hip fracture. While operative repair is recommended in most individuals, perioperative complications account for significant morbidity and mortality. Co-management programs for hip fracture care are effective in reducing mortality, as well as in-hospital complications, length of stay (LOS), readmission rate, and cost. [...]

Background: Severe aortic stenosis (SAS) had been identified as being at elevated risk for non-cardiac surgery. However, two reports demonstrated that SAS did not increase mortality of intermediate to high risk non-cardiac surgery. The European Society of Cardiology guideline states non-cardiac surgery of low to intermediate risk can be safely performed among patients with SAS. [...]

Background: One year all-cause mortality rates after a fragility fracture are as high as 24%. Treatment of osteoporosis following fracture reduces mortality, recurrent fractures rates, and healthcare costs. Without endocrinology involvement, clinicians often fail to recognize and treat osteoporosis. We aimed to assess the frequency of fragility hip fractures including recurrence rates at our academic [...]

Background: Hip fracture (HP) involves bleeding that often requires blood transfusion and it can be life-threatening. Jehovah’s witnesses (JW) refuse blood products (BP) administration because of religious beliefs. Recombinant Human Erythropoietin (rHuEPO) has become an alternative but there are still no guidelines on its use in these situations. Methods: JW patients with HP admitted to [...]

Background: Hip fractures are a major health problem in the geriatric population in the United States, with estimated costs of $18B annually. Hip fractures are highly morbid in the elderly, as deconditioning and acute complications compound chronic comorbidities. To improve care for this high-risk population, hip fracture patients are preferentially admitted to our medicine hospitalist [...]