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    News

    Criteria for Appropriate Use of Peripherally Inserted Central Catheters

    December 28, 2015

    Clinical question: What are criteria for appropriate and inappropriate use of PICCs? Background: PICCs are commonly used in medical care in a variety of clinical contexts; however, criteria defining the appropriate use of PICCs and practices related to PICC placement have not been previously esta

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    News

    Value of Ultra-Brief Cognitive Assessments in Predicting Negative Hospital Outcomes

    December 28, 2015

    Clinical question: What is the value of ultra-brief cognitive assessments in predicting hospital outcomes? Background: Cognitive assessment tools can be used to predict patient outcomes in the hospital setting.

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    News

    ACP Guidelines for Evaluation of Suspected Pulmonary Embolism

    December 25, 2015

    Clinical question: What are best practices for evaluating patients with suspected acute pulmonary embolism (PE)? Background: Use of CT in the evaluation of PE has increased across all clinical settings without improving mortality.

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    News

    Early Palliative Care Can Save Money

    December 25, 2015

    Clinical question: Does time to consult after admission change the effect palliative care consultation has on cost of care? Background: Studies have shown that early palliative care involvement improves quality of life and survival among cancer patients while reducing the cost of care.

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    News

    Effectiveness of Antipsychotics in Treatment of Delirium

    December 21, 2015

    Clinical questions: Are antipsychotics for the treatment of delirium safe and effective? Does efficacy differ between ICU and non-ICU settings? Does efficacy differ between first- and second-generation antipsychotics (SGA)? Background: Delirium is common in hospitalized patients.

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    News

    Predictors for Surgical Management of Small Bowel Obstruction

    December 18, 2015

    Clinical question: Are there clinical or computerized tomography (CT) findings that identify which patients will need early surgical management in adhesive small bowel obstruction (ASBO)? Background: Previous studies determined adverse outcomes resulting from delayed surgery in patients with

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    News

    Adding Advanced Molecular Techniques to Standard Blood Cultures May Improve Patient Outcomes

    December 18, 2015

    Clinical question: Does the addition of rapid multiplex polymerase chain reaction molecular techniques to standard blood culture bottle (BCB) processing, with or without antimicrobial stewardship recommendations, affect antimicrobial utilization and patient outcomes? Background: Standard BCB

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    News

    Some Readmission Risk Factors Not Captured by Medicare

    December 14, 2015

    Clinical question: Are there patient characteristics not currently measured by the Medicare readmission program that account for differences in hospital readmission rates? Background: The Medicare Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP) financially penalizes hospitals with higher than