Article
Hope in Tough Times
February 3, 2025
Scanning the labs of the woman I am admitting from the emergency department, I see a calcium of 12. “Oh no,” the thought jumps to the front of my mind, “This might be from a recurrence of her...
Article
How Can We Cultivate Happiness in Medicine?
February 3, 2025
Case A 45-year-old hospitalist, a familiar face in the system for the past decade, tragically took his own life. His colleagues and staff admired him, and he always had a pleasant working...
Article
Understanding the Inflation Reduction Act’s Impact on Prescription Drug Costs
February 3, 2025
Prescription drug costs in the U.S. are among the highest in the world, surpassing those in other high-income nations by more than two and a half times. In 2023, the U.S. healthcare system’s total...
Article
How Hospitalists Can Learn from Diagnostic Errors and Successes
February 3, 2025
Hospitalists are at the forefront of inpatient care and are well-positioned to reduce diagnostic errors while promoting diagnostic excellence. Diagnostic errors, defined as “the failure to (a)...
Article
Does AI Portend Sudden Transformations for Hospitalists?
February 3, 2025
Hospital medicine pioneer Robert Wachter, MD, MHM, chair of the department of medicine at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), has tackled some of the big, transformative topics in...
Article
Chapter Spotlight: Arizona
February 3, 2025
The Arizona chapter of SHM faced a challenge in 2021 when its founding hospitalists saw their practice shift from inpatient medicine to primary care. At that point, many of the members of the chapter...
Article
SIG Spotlight: Hospital at Home
February 3, 2025
Everyone knows the concept of hospital at home care. It’s institutional-level medical treatment delivered in the confines of a Cape Cod or a two-bedroom apartment, either in person or through...
Article
Coding Corner: Talk the Talk, Bill the Bill: Navigating Advance Care Discussion Billing
January 1, 2025
A 75-year-old woman with a previous medical history of high blood pressure, diabetes mellitus, stage 4 chronic kidney disease, and lung cancer was admitted to the hospital with chest pain and...
Article
Starting the Year with Gratitude
January 1, 2025
Reflecting on the past year as we begin a new one, I am grateful. Don’t get me wrong—there has been so much to knock me down over the last several months: personal loss, the seemingly endless...
Article
Efficacy of AI models in Detecting Clinical Deterioration
January 1, 2025
Clinical question: Can an artificial intelligence (AI) enabled intervention model reduce the risk of clinical deterioration and subsequent care escalation in hospitalized patients? Background:...