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Most Important Elements of End-of-Life Care
July 29, 2015
[caption id="attachment_10755" align="alignright" width="275"] Image Credit: SHUTTERSTOCK.COM[/caption] An Australian team conducted a literature review of expected deaths in the hospital—where the majority of deaths in the developed world occur—and identified elements of end-of-life care that ar
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Highest-Volume Hospitals Linked with Lower Risk for Some Procedures
July 29, 2015
An estimated 11,000 deaths could have been prevented between 2010 and 2012, if patients who went to the U.S. hospitals with the lowest patient volumes for five common procedures and conditions had gone instead to the highest-volume hospitals, according to analysis presented in U.S.
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Clinical Variables Predict Debridement Failure in Septic Arthritis
July 29, 2015
Clinical question: What risk factors predict septic arthritis surgical debridement failure? Background: Standard treatment of septic arthritis is debridement and antibiotics. Unfortunately, 23%-48% of patients fail single debridement.
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Prednisolone or Pentoxifylline Show No Mortality Benefit in Alcoholic Hepatitis
July 29, 2015
Clinical question: Does administration of prednisolone or pentoxifylline reduce mortality in patients hospitalized with severe alcoholic hepatitis? Background: Alcoholic hepatitis is associated with high mortality.
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Corticosteroids Show Benefit in Community-Acquired Pneumonia
July 29, 2015
Joshua LaBrin, MD, SFHM, Kencee Graves, MD, Karli Edholm, MD, Devin Horton, MD, and Katie Lappe, MD; Division of General Internal Medicine, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City
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Standard Discharge Communication Process Improves Verbal Handoffs between Hospitalists, PCPs
July 29, 2015
Clinical question: Can a standardized discharge communication process, coupled with an electronic health record (EHR) system, improve the proportion of completed verbal handoffs from in-hospital physicians to PCPs within 24 hours of patient discharge? Background: Discharge from the hospital setti
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Nomogram Predicts Post-Operative Readmission
July 29, 2015
Clinical question: Can a nomogram accurately predict a patient’s risk of post-operative 30-day readmission? Background: Medicare and Medicaid have implemented penalties for hospitals with high readmission rates.
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The Hospitalist Earns Pair of 2015 Awards for Publication Excellence for Health and Medical Writing
July 29, 2015
The Hospitalist has been honored with two 2015 Awards of Excellence in the Health and Medical Writing category from the Awards for Publication Excellence (APEX). The annual awards, presented to corporate and nonprofit publications, received 1,851 total entries, including nearly 400 entries to the
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Medical Professionalism: Its Evolution and What It Means to Hospitalists
July 29, 2015
Professionalism is an overused word in the medical industry. What exactly is meant by professionalism, and what should it mean to hospitalists?
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Antibiotic Stewardship and Hospitalists: How to Educate Patients on Antibiotics
July 29, 2015
Editor’s note: This article originally appeared on SHM’s official blog, “The Hospital Leader,” in June 2015. “Tell me what you know about antibiotics.” That’s the discussion I start with hospitalized patients all the time, right after they ask me to prescribe antibiotics for their simple cough