Overnight Pages
The night is dark and full of terrors. The Red Woman, A Song of Ice and Fire Thank you for electing a rotation on night medicine! Night medicine is, in general, unpredictable. However, there are certain things that come up again and again that can be intimidating for medical students who do not have years […]
Heart Failure
Overview Heart failure is a huge topic. This is a brief overview of the basics with a focus on initial management. Going forward, let’s assume that your patients are not in cardiogenic shock, which is outside the scope of this website and is more of a critical-care topic. First, make the diagnosis. There are many […]
Intensive Care
The ICU (From a Hospitalist Perspective) This section can be used as a reference for caring for your critically ill patient until they have been safely transferred to the care of an intensivist. These are huge, complicated topics, the details of which are outside the scope of this rotation. Below is a basic framework to […]
Rapid Response Team Activation
Concern for Patient Decompensation Rapid Response Teams (RRT) were invented as a way to achieve emergent evaluation and treatment of decompensating hospitalized patients to prevent cardiac arrest. They are effective and associated with decreasing incidence of unexpected cardiac arrest in the hospital. When a nurse identifies that a patient may be developing a new or […]
The Zebra Farm
when you hear hoofbeats behind you, don’t expect to see a zebra. theodore woodward This section is dedicated to some of the trickier cases that we have run into overnight. Challenge yourself to think through the questions in red before reading ahead. Enjoy the safari! Image credit: (Zebra image) Dr. Eric Tanenbaum; (patient images) stock.adobe.com.
COPD Exacerbation
Consider a COPD exacerbation in a patient with known or likely COPD (e.g., long-term cigarette use, or coming from the developing world with long-term biofuel exposure while cooking) who has an acute worsening of dyspnea, cough, or sputum production. The Management of COPD Try to figure out what caused the exacerbation (viral infection or bacterial […]