October 2010


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The different ways hospitals pay

Incentive compensation aims to improve quality and productivity.

Hypertensive emergencies

Not everyone with extremely high blood pressure meets the criteria.

They'll be back

Depression may pose as a big a risk for hospital readmission as other, better known factors.

Guidelines getting tougher on industry, but physicians are not

A survey found that physicians were comfortable accepting industry-sponsored gifts despite prohibitions against them.

Individual schedules maximize autonomy, efficiency

At Munson Medical Center in Michigan, hospitalists' workload and compensation are determined by personal preference.

When patients don't tell all

Our columnists discuss the diagnostic challenges physicians face when patients omit aspects of their histories.

Learning to learn: Simulators are easy, inexpensive to make

Create, then treat, your own simulated abscess.

Letter from the Editor

Reconciling hospitals' and hospitalists' goals isn't a simple task, but the creative use of money may make it easier.

Arsenic and Olds Lake

Could this patient have arsenic poisoning?.

Goodpasture and his syndrome

Ask any medical student which disease affects the lungs and kidneys, and he or she is likely to answer Goodpasture's syndrome.

Trusting your instincts

It's hard to call your attending at 3 a.m., especially when he's the chair of medicine.

Accelerated hypertension

Coding terminology hasn't caught up with the currently accepted clinical diagnostic terms for severe, uncontrolled hypertension.

Hospitalists' awareness of inpatient charges for services and tests

Hospitalists are not very aware of the charges for various services they provide, or tests they order, according to recent data.

Test yourself: Hypertension

These cases and commentary, which address hypertension, are excerpted from ACP's Medical Knowledge Self-Assessment Program (MKSAP15).

In the News

Multidisciplinary teams and ICU outcomes, and more.