Pulmonary and Critical Care

While spring 2020 feels like a lifetime ago, COVID-19 is still with us. Unfortunately, this winter has brought more infections, hospitalizations, and death rates that eclipse what many saw last spring. But this time, while the headlines are back about hospitals running low on PPE, ICU bed shortages, and long lines for testing, we now […]

This article is part of a series in The Hospital Leader written by members of the Division of Hospital Medicine at Dell Medical School at The University of Texas in Austin, exploring lessons learned from the coronavirus pandemic and outlining an approach for creating COVID-19 Centers of Excellence. Evidence on emerging treatments for COVID-19 has […]

While all of us see patients who smoke in their 70s or 80s, due to their limited lifespan from COPD, DM, malignancy, etc., and their expressed wishes to continue tobacco, we keep our admonitions to a minimum. We accept our patient has become learned enough through life to make their own decisions and accept whatever […]

The choices for conversations are either COVID or Netflix. Coronavirus or the latest binged show. Sports is no longer an option, unless you want to discuss how I made that putt in the homemade mini golf course. What’s for dinner or what’s the latest graph? We are all meteorologists during hurricane season and now epidemiologists […]

Do you have a stack of journals piling up on your desk, beside your bed or in your email inbox? In 1950, medical knowledge was estimated to double every 50 years, but now the doubling time is every few months. At this rate, it is impossible to keep up with the literature, but a group […]

There is at least one aspect of “Obamacare” that my mother-in-law and I can firmly agree on: hospitals should not get paid for frequent readmissions. The Hospital Readmission Reduction Program (HRRP), enacted by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in 2012 with the goal of penalizing hospitals for excessive readmissions, has great face […]