Hospital Medicine

One hospital increases hand washing compliance when hospital "spies" observe and audit.

Ever since the Surgeon General warned of the dangers associated with smoking nearly 50 years ago, special interest groups have pressed Congress to grant the FDA authority to regulate or ban tobacco products.

Hopefully, as healthcare providers, we can recognize that our responsibility extends beyond the inpatient setting, and work together to open communication to ensure smooth transitions of care.

Researchers are finding that more Americans are developing drug-resistant staph infections, from "common, relatively minor foot problems such as cuts, cracks in the skin, athlete's foot and ingrown toenails," as well as "an increase in community-associated MRSA."

A new medication for the maintenance treatment of eczema may "prevent flares and prolong flare-free intervals."

Drs. Thomas Hansen and Craig Rubens talk about their campaign to have patients actively challenge physicians and nurses when it comes to hand hygiene.

Pundits, analysts, and other industry observers have been weighing in with their thoughts on what the President's proposals will call for, what effect they may have on the nation's healthcare system, their chances of being enacted, and how we're going to pay for it all.

A chemical often used to create plastic medical devices has been shown to impair heart function in rats, and may be why side affects like loss of taste and short-term memory problems occur after medical procedures that require blood to be circulated outside of the body in plastic tubing.

The steady growth of hospital medicine has led to a push for specified certification in this field. But who should provide that certification, and is the move in this direction good or bad for hospitalists and hospital medicine?

Are MDNG: Hospitalist readers as excited as I am by Google’s foray into personalized health records (PHRs)?

You may remember the story of Harvard Medical School grad and CIO of CareGroup John Halamka who was an huge advocate of using implantable radio-frequency identification chips to give patients the option of being a walking EMR. Halamka actually had one of these chips implanted in his arm in late 2004, and the PR frenzy began.

Twitter really only wants to know one thing: "What are you doing?"

Check out photos taken at last week's Health 2.0 Conference held in Boston.

Relationships are the foundation of any strong hospital medicine program. For 30 years, TeamHealth has been helping to build innovative hospital communities through its clinical outsourcing services and other solutions, all while focusing on a patient-centric, collaborative model of healthcare delivery.

If anyone understands the state of US hospitals and the role of the hospitalist, it's Adam Singer, MD. He is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of IPC: The Hospitalist Company, which he founded in 1995, and was named Modern Physician's "Physician Entrepreneur of the Year" in October 2008.

Constipation is a very prevalent problem, affecting up to 20% of the US population.

According to a study in the March 12 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, general internists who went on to become hospitalists tripled between 1995 and 2006.

This debate featured Don Kemper, CEO of Healthwise, and Matthew Holt, co-founder of Health 2.0, LLC, discussing information therapy and Health 2.0, and why they thought one was better than the other.

It's the patient's job to manage his or her care, while the doctor's job is to provide the necessary tools and treatment.

Personal health records, designed to help patients keep all of their medical records in one place and make it easier for doctors to access patient files, may actually lead to inaccurate information and, as a result, improper treatment, some doctors fear.

A new study has found that regular exercise in patients with heart failure is not only safe, but may also lower the risk of hospitalization or death.

Hospital medicine has evolved past the point where practitioners must justify the profession through cost-effectiveness studies. As hospital medicine assumes greater prominence in the healthcare system, hospitalists will be asked to take on larger leadership roles.

One important aspect of medical care for the elderly is enacting strategies to prevent infections before and during hospitalization.

New research has found a greater prevalence of oral bacteria increases the risk of heart attacks.

Physicians at UPenn are attributing the 90% drop in central line-associated bloodstream infections seen over three years to a "multi-pronged approach" that included "leadership initiatives, electronic infection surveillance, checklists to guide line insertion and maintenance, and implementation of the Toyota Production System to encourage best practices in line care."

As many of you are aware, a growing number of hospitalized patients are elderly patients with increasing numbers of comorbidities.

The accusation that Scott Reuben, MD, fabricated results in more than 20 papers published in peer-reviewed journals has been widely reported in the last three weeks.

Researchers have discovered that a higher presence of neutrophils at infection sites leads to a greater density of biofilm, which increases the rate of the infection, findings that may lead to new treatment strategies.