Hospital Medicine News

Healio Primary Care is pleased to announce the creation of its Peer Perspective Board — a group of dedicated experts who will help guide our efforts to provide the latest news and updates that impact daily practice.

Breaking news and emerging research on the COVID-19 pandemic dominated headlines this year. However, there were other important updates that impact practice.

Higher hemoglobin thresholds for red-cell transfusions in extremely-low-birth-weight infants with anemia did not improve their survival without neurodevelopmental impairment, researchers reported in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Patients hospitalized with COVID-19 had higher rates of readmission or death 10 days after discharge compared with those with pneumonia or heart failure, according to research published in JAMA.

Although elevated BP was “common” among hospitalized patients within Cleveland Clinic’s health system, “antihypertensive treatment intensification was not,” authors of a cohort study in JAMA Internal Medicine wrote.

Patients who undergo surgery on their surgeon’s birthday may be at a greater risk for mortality, according to a study published in BMJ.

Hospitals that were enrolled in Medicare’s Bundled Payments for Care Improvement program saved about 2% for each major hip or knee replacement they performed compared with hospitals that were not enrolled in the program, data showed.

The American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living are urging governors and public health authorities to prioritize residents and staff of long-term care facilities in the first wave of COVID-19 vaccine distribution.

A study of patients on hemodialysis found potassium levels that deviate outside of the target range may be a more accurate predictor of hyperkalemic events than a single measurement or time-averaged values.

Tocilizumab may lower the odds of needing mechanical ventilation among patients hospitalized with COVID-19 pneumonia, but not the risk for death, according to research published in the New England Journal of Medicine.