In the News

More hospitals require annual flu vaccination for staff, but most VA facilities still do not

A survey found that the proportion of hospitals with policies requiring influenza vaccination for health care personnel increased from 37.1% in 2013 to 61.4% in 2017, but that only 4.1% of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals had such policies in 2017.

H2 blockers prevented clinically important GI bleeding better than PPIs in ICU patients

The retrospective study included 70,093 ICU patients who had at least one risk factor for stress ulcers and therefore had received a proton-pump inhibitor (PPI) or histamine H2-receptor antagonist (H2 blocker) for three or more days.

Many patients referred to care management not good candidates for it, say care managers

Care managers described factors they used to determine suitability for care management, including availability of social support, patient motivation, nonmedical transitions, recent trajectory of medical condition, and psychiatric or substance use issues.

Intensive care management for high-risk VA patients didn't affect overall costs

The trial focused on patients in the Veterans Affairs system (VA) who had recently had a hospital admission or ED visit and who were considered high risk for admission within 90 days.

Put words in our mouth

ACP Hospitalist Weekly wants readers to create captions for our new cartoon and help choose the winner. Pen the winning caption and win a $50 gift certificate good toward any ACP product, program, or service.