Hospital Medicine

Measuring Healthcare Quality, Access, & Efficiency

Aug 23, 2012

According to AHRQ reports, healthcare quality in the United States appears to be improving faster than access to care and disparities in care. The reports, available at www.ahrq.gov, reviewed nearly 250 healthcare quality...

New Additions to the “Never Events” List

Aug 22, 2012

You are probably familiar with the CMS “never events” initiative. CMS has decided it will not reimburse hospitals for treatment related to complications that it says should never occur. Here is the current list. Foreign object...

A Shortage of General Surgeons: Coming Soon?

Aug 13, 2012

There is much hand-wringing about the shortage of primary care physicians. But primary care is not...

Quantifying Drug-Seeking Behaviors in the Emergency Department

Aug 9, 2012

Pain is one of the most common reasons for patients seeking care in EDs, accounting for up to 42%...

Physician Decision-Making: Damned If You Do…

Aug 2, 2012

Here’s a little story from the early days of my first job as a chairman of surgery. Shortly after...

Addressing ED Crowding With Patient Flow Strategies

Jul 26, 2012

The number of ED visits has grown by 25% in the past decade, but the number of hospital EDs and inpatient beds has declined during that same time-frame, resulting in crowded conditions nationwide. Nearly half of EDs are...

Enhancing Communication on Stroke Risks in AF

Jul 18, 2012

Atrial fibrillation (AF) affects an estimated 2.3 million Americans every year, increasing their...

Cognitive Decline Affects the Elderly After Hospitalization

Jul 18, 2012

Cognitive functioning appears to decline substantially after older patients are hospitalizations,...

A Look Back at Mortality Rates

Jul 18, 2012

A report from the CDC has found that the age-adjusted risk of dying decreased 60% from 1935 to...

Discharge Planning in Poorly Controlled Diabetes

Jul 11, 2012

A multicenter, retrospective study of patients with poorly controlled diabetes who have been...

Managing Recent-Onset Atrial Fibrillation in the ED

Jul 11, 2012

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common sustained cardiac rhythm disturbance. AF is a risk...

Expeditors in EDs: Facilitating Patient Throughput

Jul 5, 2012

Patients commonly experience lulls in their treatment during the course of their visits to the...

Physician Triage in the ED

Jun 26, 2012

Having physicians conduct triage in the ED appears to lead to earlier evaluations, physicians orders, and disposition decisions when compared with non-physician triage. A 2-year before-and- after analysis found statistically...

A Novel Approach to Reporting Surgery Outcomes

Jun 26, 2012

An evaluation of reliability adjustment—a novel technique designed to quantify and remove...

A Cost-Effective Antimicrobial Stewardship Program

Jun 19, 2012

An antimicrobial stewardship program implemented at the University of Maryland Medical Center that...

Counsel Patients on Healthy Eating

Jun 12, 2012

The American Medical Association has launched an online training module to help clinicians counsel...

Recovery After Severe TBI

Jun 12, 2012

A small study conducted in patients in a vegetative or minimally conscious state suggests that administering amantadine for 4 weeks, in conjunction with inpatient rehabilitation, appears to lead to significantly faster recovery...