Hospital medicine

5,188 articles · Since 2004

Articles, page 2

The question to ask after a hospital says it’s accredited

July 14, 2026Jul 14, 2026

China now has more than 100 JCI-accredited hospitals, the same Joint Commission International standard many U.S. patients recognize from conversations about hospital quality. That number surprises people. It also invites a dangerous shortcut: "JCI-accredited" becomes shorthand for "safe," "excellent," or…

China now has more than 100 JCI-accredited hospitals, the same Joint Commission International standard many U.S. patients recognize from conversations about hospital quality. That number surprises people. It also invites a dangerous shortcut: “JCI-accredited” becomes shorthand for “safe,” “excellent,” or “the best place for my operation.”

Patients deserve a more careful answer.

JCI accreditation matters. I do not dismiss it. But it is not a guarantee of outcomes, technical skill, complication management, …

Physician voices

Who is your witness? A question for every patient

Tosin Adeyemi, MD

July 14, 2026Jul 14, 2026

With three months left of intern year of internal medicine residency, I took the leap and adopted a dog from the Dallas Animal Services shelter. She is my SuperNova. Nova is a two-year-old Lab-Pitbull mix with big brown eyes that…

With three months left of intern year of internal medicine residency, I took the leap and adopted a dog from the Dallas Animal Services shelter. She is my SuperNova.

Nova is a two-year-old Lab-Pitbull mix with big brown eyes that hold your heart and a wagging tail that could power a small town. Her world is simple: following me from room to room, shaking with excitement when I pull out her …

Physician voices

Why AI may make hospitalists more essential, not less

Dr. Muhammad Ali Aleem

July 13, 2026Jul 13, 2026

For years, health care commentators have predicted that technology would reduce the need for hospitalists. The logic seemed straightforward: If artificial intelligence can analyze labs, interpret imaging, suggest diagnoses, and generate treatment plans, why would hospitals need thousands of physicians…

The prediction may have gotten it exactly backward.

Rather than making hospitalists obsolete, AI may accelerate a future in which hospitalists become the dominant physician …

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Conditions and diseases

Supporting night shift workers starts with one question

Chinyelu E. Oraedu, MD

July 10, 2026Jul 10, 2026

A few months ago, I had just completed another demanding overnight shift. As morning approached, I finished my documentation, prepared to hand off my patients to the day team, and looked forward to driving home. Before leaving, our hospital administrator joined our morning huddle to thank both the day and night physicians for caring for patients around the clock. As our conversation came to an end, he smiled, looked at …

Physician voices

Detachment is not strength: lessons from dying patients

Aditya Singh, MD

June 17, 2026Jun 17, 2026

They say a dying man doesn't lie. But have you ever wondered why? Is it a sudden surge of enlightenment? A newfound wisdom that only arrives when the clock begins to run out? Or is it something more visceral? The…

They say a dying man doesn’t lie. But have you ever wondered why?

Is it a sudden surge of enlightenment? A newfound wisdom that only arrives when the clock begins to run out? Or is it something more visceral? The experience of being brought face-to-face with every morally questionable choice, every “snoozed” priority, and every unspoken truth?

Many religions speak of a Judgment Day or a Karma, a moment where we are …

Health policy

Fragmented care is the gap digital health left open

Robert Nieves, JD, MBA, MPA, RN

June 6, 2026Jun 6, 2026

One of the unintended consequences of digital health is that we became extraordinarily good at collecting information without spending nearly enough time teaching clinicians how to use it together. For years, health care informatics focused largely on documentation itself. We…

One of the unintended consequences of digital health is that we became extraordinarily good at collecting information without spending nearly enough time teaching clinicians how to use it together.

For years, health care informatics focused largely on documentation itself. We trained clinicians to click, complete, reconcile, acknowledge, and navigate increasingly complex systems. Conversations emerged around reducing clicks, decreasing documentation burden, and improving workflow efficiency. Those things matter.

But somewhere along the way, …

Physician voices

Why do physicians write fiction?

Dr. Jonathan Hammel

June 2, 2026Jun 2, 2026

I remember the moment I understood I would have to write this story. I was in Berlin with my girlfriend, wandering the city hand in hand, stopping for coffee near the Tiergarten with no real plan. We decided to visit…

I remember the moment I understood I would have to write this story.

I was in Berlin with my girlfriend, wandering the city hand in hand, stopping for coffee near the Tiergarten with no real plan. We decided to visit the Jewish Hospital, the Jüdisches Krankenhaus. I had heard the name so many times in my family, and now I was just a few metro stops away.

We entered beneath the old …

Read more…

Why do physicians write fiction?

Conditions and diseases

Why does post-discharge care keep breaking down?

Katherine Owen, RN

May 30, 2026May 30, 2026

At 10 p.m., the phone rings. A patient discharged three days ago is back in the emergency department. The care plan was clear. The medications were correct. The follow-up was scheduled. Nothing was missed, on paper. And yet, here we…

The uncomfortable truth

Health care does not have a planning problem. It has an execution problem.

We design excellent care inside the hospital, then we quietly hope it continues outside of …

The Podcast by KevinMD

2 a.m. is a biological stress test no one talks about [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

May 20, 2026May 20, 2026

What happens to your body and clinical judgment when you're managing a code blue at the exact hour your biology demands deep sleep? Chinyelu E. Oraedu is an academic hospitalist and nocturnist with 17 years of post-residency experience who has…

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What happens to your body and clinical judgment when you’re managing a code blue at the exact hour your biology demands deep sleep? Chinyelu E. Oraedu is an academic hospitalist and nocturnist with 17 years of post-residency experience who has dedicated her career to understanding the science and human reality of …

Conditions and diseases

How medical residents build patient trust today

Sarah Whaley

May 20, 2026May 20, 2026

Spend enough time in a hospital, and patterns start to emerge. Not the clinical kind, the human kind. During my daughter's recent hospitalization, residents rotated in and out every 12 hours. Over time, I found myself paying attention in a…

Spend enough time in a hospital, and patterns start to emerge. Not the clinical kind, the human kind. During my daughter’s recent hospitalization, residents rotated in and out every 12 hours. Over time, I found myself paying attention in a different way. Not with the intent to evaluate, but with a kind of quiet curiosity about how different people showed up in the same role, under the same conditions. It …

Physician voices

Expanding the SOAP framework boosts health outcomes

Deepak Gupta, MD & Sarwan Kumar, MD

May 11, 2026May 11, 2026

The Subjective, Objective, Assessment, and Plan (SOAP) framework could be expanded beyond clinical care to also address patients' financial and legal well-being. This would require training health care providers in basic financial and legal principles, establishing dedicated financial-legal departments within…

The Subjective, Objective, Assessment, and Plan (SOAP) framework could be expanded beyond clinical care to also address patients’ financial and legal well-being. This would require training health care providers in basic financial and legal principles, establishing dedicated financial-legal departments within health care institutions, and potentially offering financial and legal services as add-ons to health care insurance. With these changes, routine health care encounters could become more comprehensive, addressing socioeconomic needs …

Physician voices

Dehumanization in medicine: the language of disposition

Aditya Singh, MD

May 10, 2026May 10, 2026

As a second-year internal medicine resident, I had an unexpected epiphany during my geriatrics rotation, not amid the chaos of a bustling hospital, but within the reflective calm of a rehabilitation facility. As I walked into the room of a…

As I walked into the room of a long-term care patient recovering after a stroke, there was a man in front of me who was wheelchair-bound and visibly distressed. His speech was difficult to understand, but as I listened …

Conditions and diseases

National Hospital Week reveals what care really takes

Brian Sutter

May 2, 2026May 2, 2026

Shift change is one of the most critical windows in any hospital. It depends on teams staying tightly aligned across dozens of moving parts. A respiratory therapist tweaks a ventilator seconds before a desaturation alarm triggers. Down the hall, a…

Shift change is one of the most critical windows in any hospital. It depends on teams staying tightly aligned across dozens of moving parts.

A respiratory therapist tweaks a ventilator seconds before a desaturation alarm triggers. Down the hall, a transporter clears a bottleneck to move a patient upstairs. At 3:00 a.m., a lab flags a subtle shift in bloodwork, changing the care plan before a crisis could unfold.

From the outside, …

Conditions and diseases

Why psychological safety in health care systems matters

Tiffiny Black, DM, MBA, MPA

May 1, 2026May 1, 2026

In health care, we often talk about psychological safety as something leaders create, encouraging people to speak up, be open, and learn from mistakes. But in practice, many clinicians already know: Whether it is truly safe to speak depends on what happens after they do. The term “psychological safety,” introduced by Amy Edmondson, describes a shared belief that it is safe to take interpersonal risks. But in health care environments, …

Physician voices

Physician autonomy is not separate from patient care

Corinne Sundar Rao, MD

April 22, 2026Apr 22, 2026

Recently, I came across the Charter of the Soignés ("those being cared for") by French physician and writer Martin Winckler from The School of Caregivers (2019). This is not a legal document, but an ethical framework. It outlines 10 principles…

Recently, I came across the Charter of the Soignés (“those being cared for”) by French physician and writer Martin Winckler from The School of Caregivers (2019).

This is not a legal document, but an ethical framework. It outlines 10 principles centered on dignity, autonomy, and the humanity of the patient.

The first nine principles focus on what we would hope our patients experience. The recognition that a person is more than a …

Physician voices

Bridging the gap between a chronic disease diagnosis and treatment

Donald Kushner, MD

April 21, 2026Apr 21, 2026

Early in my career, I saved a man's life, and he was not pleased. Mr. H came to see me for knee pain. With my training still fresh, I moved through a standard review of systems. When I asked about…

Early in my career, I saved a man’s life, and he was not pleased. Mr. H came to see me for knee pain. With my training still fresh, I moved through a standard review of systems. When I asked about cardiac symptoms, he mentioned that for several weeks, walking more than a block caused chest pain that resolved with rest. The knee was forgotten. I explained the cardiac risk, ordered …

Physician voices

When shared decision making gives way to medical paternalism

DeAnna Pollock, MD

April 21, 2026Apr 21, 2026

"Why haven't they scheduled your dad for his feeding tube placement? They just want another family conference." I sighed and told my mother we may have to fight. The physicians caring for my father seemed ready to overrule her decision,…

“Why haven’t they scheduled your dad for his feeding tube placement? They just want another family conference.” I sighed and told my mother we may have to fight. The physicians caring for my father seemed ready to overrule her decision, even though she held his medical power of attorney. When I spoke with an intern, I explained that our family had not changed our mind about the course of treatment. …

Conditions and diseases

The quiet hospital financial crisis threatening health care

Ganesh Asaithambi, MD, MBA

April 17, 2026Apr 17, 2026

During the first months of COVID-19, the threat was unmistakable. Hospitals were stretched to capacity. ICU beds were made wherever space could be found. Frontline staff worked on adrenaline, obligation, and the unspoken recognition that at any second the whole thing could collapse. It was defined by volume that was relentless, tangible, and measurable. But the crisis today is different. It is much quieter. It does not announce itself with …

Conditions and diseases

Closing the execution reliability gap in health care systems

Katherine Owen, RN

April 16, 2026Apr 16, 2026

Health care has made extraordinary progress in clinical knowledge. Diagnostic capabilities have advanced, treatments have become more precise, and predictive analytics now help clinicians identify patients at risk for complications or readmissions. Yet despite these advances, health care systems continue to struggle with a familiar challenge: Care plans that look clear inside the hospital often break down once patients return home. Medication instructions are misunderstood. Follow-up steps are delayed. Symptoms …

Conditions and diseases

Recognizing structural drift and institutional failure in health care

Tiffiny Black, DM, MBA, MPA

April 16, 2026Apr 16, 2026

Most institutional failures appear sudden. A hospital collapses under regulatory scrutiny. A leadership crisis erupts. A safety breakdown exposes systemic weaknesses that had remained invisible for years. When these moments occur, they are often described as unexpected. But in complex systems like health care, failure rarely arrives without warning. The warning signs are almost always present long before the crisis becomes visible. The challenge is that institutions often learn to …

Hospital medicine

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