Article
Clinical Scenario: Patient Care Through POLST
October 10, 2024
Physician orders for life-sustaining treatment (POLST) forms are crucial tools in ensuring that patient treatment preferences are respected and followed, particularly during medical emergencies. As...
Article
Demystifying Performance Measures: Length of Stay
August 1, 2024
A 73-year-old woman presents with syncope, generalized weakness, and frequent falls on a Friday afternoon. Past medical history includes coronary artery disease, aortic stenosis, atrial fibrillation...
Article
Tricky Transitions: How SNF Challenges Affect Hospitalists
May 1, 2024
With skilled nursing facing thin margins and high costs, many hospitalists are also struggling to transfer patients for the care they need from these types of facilities. This becomes a big...
Article
Demystifying Performance Measures for Hospitalists: HCAHPS
May 1, 2024
The Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey was first implemented by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to assess and compare performance on...
Article
Top 10 Challenges to QIPs
April 1, 2024
Hospitalists are uniquely positioned to drive quality-improvement (QI) initiatives across the health care continuum. Our daily interactions span diverse health care teams and specialties. Our care...
Article
How Can Hospitalists Help Reduce Harmful In-hospital Patient Falls?
March 1, 2024
An estimated 700,000 to 1,000,000 falls occur in hospitalized patients in this country every year, with one-quarter to one-third of the falls leading to injuries. At least 10% of those are serious...
Article
Hospitalists Play a Leading Role in Responding to Mass-Casualty Incidents
March 1, 2024
Mass shootings. Bioterror attacks. Natural disasters. Wars. There’s seemingly no shortage of potential mass-casualty incidents (MCIs) that can lead health care professionals, including...
Article
Demystifying Performance Measures for Hospitalists: VTE Prophylaxis
March 1, 2024
As venous thromboembolism (VTE) became an increasingly recognized cause of death in hospitalized patients, prevention became a high priority for the health care system.1,2 Starting in 2005, the Joint...
Article
Debriefings After an Unexpected Hospital Death or Code
February 1, 2024
Hospitalist and palliative-care physician Kencee Graves, MD, FACP, recalls participating on a difficult code-team response while still a new medicine intern at the University of Utah, where she is...
Article
How Do You Ethically Integrate a GIP Hospice Service into the Hospital?
January 2, 2024
Case An 86-year-old female with a history of metastatic pancreatic cancer and diabetes was admitted for chest pain and dyspnea and found to have an acute pulmonary embolism. The hospital...