Background: The traditional role of hospitalists is to provide care to patients hospitalized with acute medical conditions. Over the past few years, this has evolved to improve care transitions and stewardship of hospital resources. Many hospitals may embed hospitalists in the Emergency Department (ED) to improve patient flow into the hospital; however, there are sparse [...]

Background: The traditional role of hospitalists is to provide care to patients hospitalized with acute medical conditions. Over the past few years, this has evolved to improve care transitions and stewardship of hospital resources. Many hospitals may embed hospitalists in the Emergency Department (ED) to improve patient flow into the hospital; however, there are sparse [...]

Background: Patients experiencing unsheltered homelessness are at extreme risk for worse outcomes, including increased mortality 10 times that of the general population and an average life expectancy of 53 (over 20 yrs less than general population). Transitions of care pose unique difficulties for this vulnerable population, with numerous barriers to ongoing care and resulting readmission [...]

Background: Professional Advancement Models (PAM) have been researched and implemented at large academic institutions as a solution to provide structure and support for career advancement for Advancement Practice Providers (APPs).1,2 Many of these programs fail to appreciate the nuances of inpatient vs outpatient providers. Given the inherent differences of these practice settings, we aim to investigate [...]

Background: Kaiser Permanente Roseville Medical Center is a 340 bed facility in Northern California.  Reducing readmissions has been a focus, and the current observed over expected rate is 0.77.  Starting from this relatively low readmission rate, our focus has been optimizing care for patients at high risk of readmission. A retrospective review of all patients [...]

Background: Rapid response system (RRS) was developed in recent decades for the timely identification and treatment of clinically deteriorating patients. Appropriate use of RRS will decrease the incidence of cardiac arrest and mortality. Although efficacy of RRS was reported mostly in an inpatient setting, there were very limited data in an outpatient setting. The aim [...]

Background: There are an estimated 3.5 million people in the United States living with Hepatitis C virus (HCV); 75-85% of those will develop a chronic infection that can result in liver complications. It is crucial to identify positive infections immediately to ensure linkage to a provider and prevent the advancement of HCV. Initial face-to-face contact [...]

Background: The possibility of outpatient evaluation of suspected transient ischemic attack has previously been considered in studies, and some have suggested that outpatient evaluation of suspected TIA may be safe and cost-effective in patients at lower risk of stroke as measured by the ABCD2 score. However, no consensus has been reached on the optimal strategy [...]

Background: Patient understanding of prescription medication regimens is an important aspect of health literacy and inpatient medication reconciliation. There is a lack of data regarding patient knowledge of their own outpatient prescription medications. This study evaluated the ability of patients admitted to a community hospital medicine service to provide, from memory, their preadmission prescription medication [...]

Background: Venous thromboembolism (VTE), including deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE), affects one to two per one thousand persons annually in the US. Treatment of VTE consists of anticoagulation therapy, and evidence supports treating patients with low-risk VTEs as outpatients.  Novel oral agents such as rivaroxaban, an oral factor Xa inhibitor, require less [...]