Hospital Medicine Alert – March 1, 2015
March 1, 2015
View Issues
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Does Your Patient Have a Central Venous Catheter?
Central venous catheters (CVCs) are essential to providing optimal care to many hospitalized patients.
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Transient Ischemic Attacks: A Missed Opportunity
SYNOPSIS: Patients with transient ischemic attacks were not given evidence-based secondary prevention for stroke at discharge from the hospital as often compared to patients with stroke, thus creating a missed opportunity to decrease the incidence of future stroke and cardiovascular disease.
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Benefits of NIV in COPD Supported in Routine Clinical Practice
SYNOPSIS: In a large cohort study, patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease managed with noninvasive ventilation had lower inpatient mortality, shorter length of stay, and lower costs compared to those managed with invasive ventilation.
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Multicenter Quality Improvement Project Resulted in a 23% Reduction in Medical Errors
SYNOPSIS: Implementation of a quality improvement project focused on handoffs reduced medical errors by 23% and preventable adverse events by 30%.
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Peramivir: A Newly Approved Antiviral for Treatment of Influenza
Peramivir (Rapivab™) was recently approved by the FDA in December 2014 for treatment of acute uncomplicated influenza within two days of symptom onset. This newly approved antiviral is a neuraminidase inhibitor (NI) similar to oseltamivir and zanamivir but the first to be approved in an injectable formulation.1 Peramivir has been licensed in Japan (as Rapiacta) and South Korea (as PeramiFlu) since 2010. In addition, it has been used in the United States on an emergency basis during the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic.