November 29, 2010 |  0
In this large retrospective cohort, the risk of vascular events (stroke or MI) was significantly higher in the 4 weeks following invasive dental procedures. This may have implications for anti-platelet agent use in the weeks following invasive dental procedures (abstract)
November 29, 2010 |  0
In this meta-analysis, the CRB-65 performed well in predicting mortality in patients hospitalized for pneumonia, but over-predicted mortality in outpatients. CRB-65 can be utilized for admitted patients, but does not perform well for predicting mortality risk in outpatients (abstract)
November 29, 2010 |  0
In this large retrospective cohort, use of PPIs in the first trimester was not associated with birth defects. Past studies have already confirmed no risk in the 2nd or 3rd trimesters. PPIs can be safely used throughout pregnancy (abstract)
November 29, 2010 |  1
The hospitalist group for which I serve as medical director just voted to decrease weekday compensation and increase weekend and holiday compensation.  This will be budget neutral; that is the total compensation paid across all doctors over a year will be the unchanged, but those who work more weekends will earn more salary than those […]
November 28, 2010 |  0
In this large retrospective cohort, adverse events among hospitalized patients occurred at a rate of 25 per 100 patient days, with no significant change from 2002 to 2007. Continued efforts are needed to reduce adverse event rates in hospitalized patients (abstract)
November 26, 2010 |  0
A nice summary on Medicare’s valuation approach to compiling a “price” it pays to a hospital for a stay. If you recall, there are 746 DRG’s CMS tweaks to an infinitely granular level to arrive at a reimbursement total. As Reinhardt relays, CMS pays for costs, as close as it can approximate, not value. If […]