Hospital Medicine

Study finds men with HIV and chronic HCV infection are more likely to receive treatment than women. The same study also indicates Caucasians with HIV and HCV co-infection are more likely to receive treatment than their African-American counterparts.

Study finds there are often long delays between diagnosis and referral for treatment by a specialist for patients with hepatitis C, and also long delays from the time of referral to initiation of treatment.

Diana Fancher, DNP, MBA, RN, says replacing the fee-for-service model with bundled payments has its own set of problems.

Researchers in Denmark evaluated the quality of hospital care delivered to more than 13,500 patients with peptic ulcer bleeding as part of a large-scale quality improvement initiative.

The increasing incidence of C. difficile infection in hospitals and other settings, coupled with the emergence of new high-virulence strains, requires physicians to understand the risk factors associated with this condition and be prepared to effectively diagnose and manage it.

Patients who undergo open and minimally-invasive colon surgery on Monday have significantly shorter lengths of hospital stay compared to operations performed on any other day of the week.

UCLA researchers determine the model for end-stage liver disease (MELD) scoring system effectively moves patients in the most critical condition to the top of the liver recipient list.

Increased spending for treatment of HIV patients does not necessarily lead to a more positive clinical outcome, according to a new study presented at the 2013 United States Conference on AIDS.

By providing HIV testing, counseling, screening for other STDs, transportation assistance, and other services, these programs were able to successfully identify new cases of HIV in high-risk groups and provide them with follow-up care.

A unique program that focuses on specific neighborhoods in Philadelphia with high hepatitis C and HIV/AIDS infection rates provides free testing, works with local leaders to destigmatize testing, and connects infected individuals with needed health care services.

Researchers have had little success in developing an HIV cure, but recent studies involving gene therapy, immune-based therapy, reactivation of the immune system, and "very early" treatment have produced promising results.

Due to improvements in treatment and other factors, the number of HIV-positive patients over age 50 is growing rapidly. With their greater risk for serious comorbidities such as depression and addiction, these patients represent a unique challenge for clinicians and caregivers.

The new Federation of State Medical Boards Model Policy for the Use of Opioid Analgesics in the Treatment of Chronic Pain is designed to help ensure physicians who prescribe or use opioids do so "in full compliance with state and federal regulations, accepted clinical practice, and in a manner that is safe and reduces risk."

A recent meta-analysis indicates treatment with oral proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) produces outcomes similar to those obtained with treatment with intravenous PPIs in patients with peptic ulcer bleeding.

Even when it's administered in a low-dose form that resists gastric acid and prevents tablet dissolution in the stomach, aspirin therapy causes peptic ulcer and increases the risk of 30-day mortality resulting from gastrointestinal (GI) disorder progression.

Researchers at Duke University discover that hearts from donors with histories of cardiac arrest can be successfully transplanted, sometimes with excellent outcomes.

News and updates about USCA 2013.

Cardiac surgery teams should be trained to improve communication and teamwork, and hospitals should establish robust quality assurance systems to identify and correct safety hazards.

While neither surgeons nor patients ever want to face post-surgical complications, a new study has revealed that certain types of payments to hospitals reward suboptimal care and penalize quality care.

An online commentary published in the May 22/May 29 edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association asserts that all hospitals should randomly test physicians for drug and alcohol abuse to increase patient safety.

Medicare will be assessing $227 million in fines against hospitals in 49 states as part of the federal government's campaign to reduce the number of patients readmitted within a month of discharge.

Results from a 12-week study show patients treated with eluxadoline report decreased abdominal pain and improved bowel movement frequency and urgency.

Research findings underscore the importance of testing peptic ulcer patients for H. pylori status.

Unique interactive resource from the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University offers visual depiction of HIV prevalence data.

As part of ongoing efforts to support the National HIV/AIDS Strategy, the new initiative will direct Federal agencies to align and coordinate their efforts to maximize outcomes along the HIV care continuum.

As part of a new pilot program, more than 300 US hospitals have begun to voluntarily report 30-day all-cause risk standardized readmission rates after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).

Although many US hospitals tout quality improvement in surgical outcomes, new research findings released at the national conference of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) show that taking cancer operation performance into account would deliver a more accurate hospital rating.

Primary care physicians rate more than 40 percent of hospitalizations resulting from ambulatory care-sensitive conditions (ACSCs) as avoidable with effective preventive care and disease management.

Although previous studies have already established that low serum sodium levels commonly occur in critically ill children who require hospitalization, a team of Polish researchers aimed to more closely evaluate the link between hyponatremia and the severity of a child's community-acquired pneumonia (CAP).

Two recently published case studies examine the diagnosis and treatment of hyponatremia in patients who are also suffering from comparatively rare comorbidities.