February 1, 2023
Slashing superfluous labs
Experts offer their advice on getting over your love of daily labs to help patients and reduce costs.
Paying for hospital care at home
Traditional hospital-at-home models include costs for care, medications, and labs but do not cover the capital expenses that diagnosis-related group payments typically support.
Mortality similar with restrictive vs. liberal fluid strategies for sepsis with hypotension
A multicenter U.S. trial randomized patients with sepsis-induced hypotension to either a strategy prioritizing vasopressors and lower IV fluid volumes or a strategy prioritizing higher volumes of IV fluids before vasopressors for 24 hours after initial treatment.
Early mobilization significantly reduced cognitive impairment in ICU patients, trial finds
Less than a quarter of patients randomized to early occupational and physical therapy while ventilated were cognitively impaired at one year, compared to 43% of those who received usual care, a single-center study found.
Adults hospitalized with RSV had worse outcomes than those with influenza
Patients with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) were at higher risk of a long hospital stay and mechanical ventilation versus those with influenza, a prospective study found. The former group also had more pre-existing cardiopulmonary conditions.
Overdose risk may be highest in week after hospital discharge for patients on long-term opioids
During the first seven days after hospital discharge, patients prescribed long-term opioid therapy overdosed on opioids at a rate more than six times higher than in other time periods, a retrospective study in one health system found.