May 7, 2025
Save lives by treating substance use
Addiction experts offered strategies for starting medications for substance use disorders, specifically opioids and alcohol.
Be guarded about guardianship
A physician and a lawyer explain why it's important to search for alternatives to a court-appointed guardian for a patient.
AI-generated discharge summaries similar in quality to physician-written versions
Reviewers comparing discharge summaries for 100 patients that were generated by physicians or artificial intelligence (AI) did find more errors in the latter group, at a mean of 2.91 per summary versus 1.82.
Genomic surveillance system identified outbreaks, saved lives in a hospital trial
Over two years, weekly whole genome sequencing allowed a hospital's infection control team to identify 172 outbreaks, ranging in size from two to 16 patients, and prevent an estimated 62 infections and 4.8 deaths.
Severe burnout affects 1 in 10 internal medicine physicians, survey finds
There was no difference in burnout prevalence based on facility type or between primary care physicians versus hospitalists. However, physicians in the Western part of the U.S. were significantly more likely to report burnout than those in other regions of the country.
Inequities in opioid prescribing for pain common among hospitalized patients
Patients from racial/ethnic minority groups received significantly fewer opioids for pain control than White patients, particularly if they had substance use disorders, a U.S. retrospective cohort study found.
Take a quiz about the April 30 issue!
Every week, ACP Hospitalist posts a question about the previous week's issue. See how well you remember what you've read compared to other readers.