I wanted to take a moment to highlight a 2019 QI project at NMH. Alcohol use disorders is a common illness among hospitalized patients. A 2015 epidemiological study found the 12–month prevalence of alcohol use disorder among adults to be 13.9%.1 Identification of patients at high risk for complicated withdrawal (seizures, delirium tremens and severe alcohol withdrawal symptoms) is crucial to provide the appropriate treatment to patients.
Profile Tom Enke
The United States Preventative Service Task Force (USPSTF) is an organization focused on providing high-quality, evidence based recommendations regarding clinical preventative services. The USPSTF is a great resource that I wanted to highlight in today’s post. Each recommendation from the USPSTF receives a grade based on the below definitions. Since 2020, they have made 8
The American Cancer Society (ACS) recently released updated guideline recommendations for cervical cancer screening. Please see the highlights below! Rationale: Persistent high-risk HPV infections, predominantly HPV16 and HPV18, are responsible for nearly all cervical cancers. The goal of cervical cancer screening is to detect and treat precancerous lesions and early stage invasive cancer. A growing
Recent CDC guidelines have recommended considering naloxone for patients at high risk of an opioid overdose. Drs. Welter, Blankenship and Eisenstadt have done great work at Northwestern to raise awareness regarding this potentially lifesaving intervention. Please see their excellent tip sheet regarding the prescription of naloxone for those at risk for opioid overdose. A link
Since we’re on the topic of diabetic foot ulcer, this is a friendly reminder to perform a yearly foot exam on all patients with diabetes. Keep an eye out for the “Best Practice” reminder to see when a patient is due for an annual foot exam. Easily document your foot exam with the dot phrase
Antimicrobial Stewardship An elderly patient presents with fevers and new oxygen requirement. Labs reveal a leukocytosis and chest x-ray reveals a lower right lung consolidation. You are concerned about an aspiration pneumonia and instinctively choose a regimen with anaerobic coverage, but is anaerobic coverage necessary? A recent article by Dr. Vedamurthy and others published in the Journal of Hospital Medicine attempts to answer this question. Highlights
On Monday’s morning report, we discussed the case of an elderly female presenting with hemoptysis and AKI. Part of our discussion focused on FeNa and FeUrea. These tests are commonly ordered reflexively during evaluation of AKI, but are they the best use of hospital resources. A 2016 article by Dr. Pahwa and Dr. Sperati attempted to address this question. Key Points : The initial studies investigating FeNa and FeUrea focused on select
As the COVID pandemic continues and flu season begins, proper utilization of hospital resources becomes a priority. We wanted to take a moment to highlight key components of the most recent American Health Association’s (AHA) 2017 recommendations regarding telemetry use. Cardiac conditions where telemetry is not required: Frequent PVC’s or non-sustained VT in the absence