Physician Decision-Making: Damned If You Do…
Here’s a little story from the early days of my first job as a chairman of surgery. Shortly after...
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Hospital Medicine
Addressing ED Crowding With Patient Flow Strategies
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...
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Enhancing Communication on Stroke Risks in AF
Atrial fibrillation (AF) affects an estimated 2.3 million Americans every year, increasing their...
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Cognitive Decline Affects the Elderly After Hospitalization
Cognitive functioning appears to decline substantially after older patients are hospitalizations,...
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A Look Back at Mortality Rates
A report from the CDC has found that the age-adjusted risk of dying decreased 60% from 1935 to...
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Discharge Planning in Poorly Controlled Diabetes
A multicenter, retrospective study of patients with poorly controlled diabetes who have been...
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Managing Recent-Onset Atrial Fibrillation in the ED
Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common sustained cardiac rhythm disturbance. AF is a risk...
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Expeditors in EDs: Facilitating Patient Throughput
Patients commonly experience lulls in their treatment during the course of their visits to the...
Read MorePhysician Triage in the ED
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...
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A Novel Approach to Reporting Surgery Outcomes
An evaluation of reliability adjustment—a novel technique designed to quantify and remove...
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A Cost-Effective Antimicrobial Stewardship Program
An antimicrobial stewardship program implemented at the University of Maryland Medical Center that...
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Counsel Patients on Healthy Eating
The American Medical Association has launched an online training module to help clinicians counsel...
Read MoreRecovery After Severe TBI
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...
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Motivating Patients to Change for the Better
One of the great challenges for physicians is to motivate their patients to make positive health...
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Antibacterial Scrubs Reduce MRSA Burden
Antimicrobial scrubs appear to reduce the burden of MRSA on hands and apparel, but not...
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Fat Physicians Need Not Apply
Texas-based Citizens Medical Center recently made the decision to refuse employment to obese...
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Pediatric Fracture-Related Pain: The Crowding Effect
According to published studies, pain is the most common reason for seeking care in the ED,...
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Wide Disparity in Hospital Charges for Appendicitis. Why?
If you wonder why hospitals are under fire for outrageous and often baffling accounting practices,...
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Discharging Patients After Elective PCI
Among Medicare recipients, PCI is one of the most commonly performed cardiac procedures in the...
Read MoreA Quality Indicator Toolkit for Hospitals
The AHRQ has release a toolkit to guide hospitals in the use of the agency’s Inpatient Quality Indicators and Patient Safety Indicators for improving care. The toolkit, available for free at www.ahrq.gov, includes a “roadmap”...
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