Journal of hospital medicine : an official publication of the Society of Hospital Medicine
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We aimed to examine the role played by the COVID-19 infection in patients' death and to determine the proportion of patients for whom it was a major contributor to death. ⋯ For slightly less than half (40%) of patients who died of complications of COVID-19, death was an unexpected event. Among the 60% of patients for whom death was not a surprise, our findings identify opportunities to improve end-of-life discussions and implement shared decision-making in high-risk patients early on or prior to hospitalization.
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For the first 6 months of the novel coronavirus-19 (COVID-19) pandemic, the hospital medicine procedure service at our center was temporarily unavailable. We assessed paracentesis rates and clinical outcomes for patients admitted with cirrhosis and ascites before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Two hundred and twenty-four and 131 patients with cirrhosis and ascited were admitted to hospital before and during COVID-19 respectively. ⋯ GI consultation was associated with higher rates of paracentesis in both eras (p < .001 pre-COVID-19, and p = .01 COVID-19). Changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic did not result in changes to rates of timely paracentesis in patients admitted with cirrhosis and ascites. While involvement of gastroenterology may increase rates of paracentesis, further efforts are needed to optimize rates of timely paracentesis to positively impact clinical outcomes.