Author's posts
Please stop the over-diagnosis of UTIs
I admitted an elderly woman to the hospital recently. The previous week, she had presented to the emergency department (ED) with chest pain and shortness of breath. For some unknown reason, a urinalysis was obtained and was found to be abnormal. The…
A case for computers at the bedside
“It should be in my chart.” I’m sure we have all heard this statement uttered with a subtle (or not so subtle) edge of frustration from our patients after asking a question such as “what medications do you take?” I find clinicians despise this comment…
How the death of a patient affected this nocturnist
I am a nocturnist (a nocturnal hospitalist). I love my job, but many nights my work can seem unfulfilling. For one, taking care of hospitalized adult patients is primarily spent managing exacerbations of chronic diseases. Therefore, the reality is that…
How EMR alert fatigue overwhelms physicians
As a hospitalist, like most in health care, I am afflicted by the slow march of thousands of mouse clicks on the electronic health record (EHR) every day I work. But after starting a new job and learning a new EHR, I have become painfully aware of the…
