Hospital Medicine Alert – June 1, 2013
June 1, 2013
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Penicillin to Prevent Recurrent Cellulitis?
Following an index episode of recurrent cellulitis, penicillin decreased the rate of recurrent leg cellulitis during a 12-month prophylactic period as compared with placebo, but this effect was not observed to be sustained. -
In-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Outcomes
The Get with the Guidelines-Resuscitation registry is a large, prospective registry of in-hospital cardiac arrests that analyzes data to promote quality improvement. In this paper, Chan and colleagues report the long-term outcomes in Medicare-age patients who suffered an in-hospital cardiac arrest and survived to discharge. -
Is Your Smart Phone Spreading Infection in the ICU?
Bacteria were present on the cell phones of all hospital clinicians studied, with potentially pathogenic microorganisms isolated from 29% of them. Contamination with pathogens was found more commonly with smart phones than with non-smart phones, and by multivariable analysis no other factor was associated with this difference. -
Not Everything That Can Be Counted Counts!
As a federal program rolls out to award providers with incentives for achieving meaningful use in electronic health records, wide measure-by-measure variation can jeopardize the validity of electronic reporting. -
Ampicillin plus Ceftriaxone for Enterococcal Endocarditis
A nonrandomized, observational, comparative multicenter cohort study was conducted at 17 European medical centers. Patients treated with ampicillin+ceftriaxone (AC) were generally more ill at baseline than patients treated with ampicillin+gentamicin (AG). -
Pharmacology Watch: Do Perioperative Beta-Blockers Reduce Mortality?
Beta-blockers and noncardiac surgery; prenatal medication exposure and risk of autism; reasons for statin discontinuations; and FDA actions. -
Clinical Briefs in Primary Care Supplement