Journal of hospital medicine : an official publication of the Society of Hospital Medicine
-
Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality that disproportionately affects rural residents and Veterans. ⋯ Rural VHA hospitals have a higher proportion of patients admitted with AUD-related diagnoses and higher readmission rates, but lower mortality rates. Approximately, one in three patients admitted with an AUD-related diagnosis died within the 5-year follow-up period. The mortality rates observed are extraordinary and deserve urgent attention. A comprehensive plan to address AUD in the Veteran population, including how we approach and engage patients in treatment during hospitalizations with any primary or secondary AUD diagnoses, is needed.
-
Characterizing electronic messaging use among hospitalists and its association with patient volumes.
Secure electronic messaging is increasingly being utilized for communications in healthcare settings. While it likely increases efficiency, it has also been associated with interruptions, high message volumes, and risk of errors due to multitasking. ⋯ Secure messaging volumes may be higher than previously reported, which may affect hospitalist workload and workflow and have unintended effects on interruptions, multitasking, and medical errors. Additional work should be done to better understand local messaging patterns and opportunities to optimize volume of work and distractions.
-
We examined the impact of a hospital medicine medical procedure service (MPS) on hospital length of stay (LOS), postprocedure LOS, and completion of procedures on weekends. We included 4952 patients admitted to our large academic hospital between July 1, 2021 and July 31, 2023 who underwent thoracentesis, paracentesis, or lumbar puncture (LP). ⋯ Also, MPS-performed procedures were twice as likely to occur on weekends compared to non-MPS-performed procedures (odds ratio [OR]: 2.05; 95% CI: 1.75-2.41). These findings support the beneficial impact of MPS on operational efficiency, an important outcome for both patients and hospitals.