Journal of hospital medicine : an official publication of the Society of Hospital Medicine
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Limited English proficiency (LEP) has been implicated in poor health outcomes. Sepsis is a frequently fatal syndrome that is commonly encountered in hospital medicine. The impact of LEP on sepsis mortality is not currently known. ⋯ In a single-center study of patients hospitalized with sepsis, LEP was associated with mortality across nearly all races. This is a novel finding that will require further exploration into the causal nature of this association.
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Prior studies of stress cardiomyopathy (SCM) have used International Classification of Diseases (ICD) codes to identify patients in administrative databases without evaluating the validity of these codes. Between 2010 and 2016, we identified 592 patients discharged with a first known principal or secondary ICD code for SCM in our medical system. ⋯ These findings suggest that, although all but a few hospitalized patients with an ICD code for SCM had a diagnosis of SCM, some of these were chronic cases, and numerous patients with a new diagnosis of SCM did not undergo a complete diagnostic workup. Researchers should be mindful of these limitations in future studies involving administrative databases.
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Inspired by the ABIM Foundation's Choosing Wisely® campaign, the "Things We Do for No Reason™ " (TWDFNR) series reviews practices that have become common parts of hospital care but may provide little value to our patients. Practices reviewed in the TWDFNR series do not represent "black and white" conclusions or clinical practice standards but are meant as a starting place for research and active discussions among hospitalists and patients. We invite you to be part of that discussion.