Journal of General Internal Medicine

Plews-Ogan, Margaret; Nadkarni, Mohan; Forren, Sue; Leon, Darlene; White, Donna; Marineau, Don; Schorling, John; Schectman, Joel

doi: 10.1111/j.1525-1497.2004.30386.xpmid: 15209584

BACKGROUND: Voluntary reporting of near misses/adverse events is an important but underutilized source of information on errors in medicine. To date, there is very little information on errors in the ambulatory setting and physicians have not traditionally participated actively in their reporting or analysis.

Ferguson, Kristi; Waitzkin, Howard; Beekmann, Susan; Doebbeling, Bradley

doi: 10.1111/j.1525-1497.2004.20424.xpmid: 15209585

OBJECTIVE: To identify, categorize, and assess critical incidents of nonadherence to standard precautions.

Hitcho, Eileen; Krauss, Melissa; Birge, Stanley; Dunagan, William; Fischer, Irene; Johnson, Shirley; Nast, Patricia; Costantinou, Eileen; Fraser, Victoria

doi: 10.1111/j.1525-1497.2004.30387.xpmid: 15209586

OBJECTIVE: To describe the epidemiology of hospital inpatient falls, including characteristics of patients who fall, circumstances of falls, and fall-related injuries.

Allen, Jerilyn; Scott, Lisa; Stewart, Kerry; Young, Deborah

doi: 10.1111/j.1525-1497.2004.30300.xpmid: 15209588

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to determine the predictors of referral and enrollment, including racial differences, in phase 2 cardiac rehabilitation programs among African-American and white women who are eligible for such programs.

Wayne, Diane; DaRosa, Debra

doi: 10.1111/j.1525-1497.2004.30017.xpmid: 15209589

OBJECTIVE: Resident education in women’s health is required but is often underemphasized. Our aim was to identify women’s health topics with the most relevance to our graduates’ practices and to determine how well they were prepared to address women’s health issues.

Lee, Sung; Mancuso, Carol; Charlson, Mary

doi: 10.1111/j.1525-1497.2004.30011.xpmid: 15209590

BACKGROUND: Mind-body practices such as yoga are widely popular, but little is known about how such exercises impact health-related quality of life.

Smith, Christopher; Varkey, Anita; Evans, Arthur; Reilly, Brendan

doi: 10.1111/j.1525-1497.2004.30269.xpmid: 15209591

OBJECTIVE: Instruments available to evaluate attending physicians fail to address their diverse roles and responsibilities in current inpatient practice. We developed a new instrument to evaluate attending physicians on medical inpatient services and tested its reliability and validity.

O’Toole, Thomas; Arbelaez, Jose; Lawrence, Robert

doi: 10.1111/j.1525-1497.2004.30099.xpmid: 15209592

BACKGROUND: Health care providers are increasingly relying on collection agencies to recoup charges associated with medical care. Little is known about the prevalence of this practice in low-income communities and what effect it has on health-seeking behavior.

Castiglioni, Analia; Bellini, Lisa; Shea, Judy

doi: 10.1111/j.1525-1497.2004.30169.xpmid: 15209593

Program directors establish priorities for residency programs. Their views of mentoring likely influence the tone about and availability of mentoring programs. This survey to all internal medicine program directors assessed attitudes toward mentoring, existence of formal mentoring programs, and features of the mentoring programs. The response was 60%. The majority (>60%) favored mentoring. Forty-nine percent of the residencies had structured mentoring programs. Programs differed in frequency of meetings, use of evaluations, and presence of curriculum. Overall, although program directors’ attitudes are favorable and at least half have formal mentoring programs, the programs are largely unstructured, loosely monitored, and underevaluated.

Morris, Charles; Cabral, Danielle; Cheng, Hailu; Katz, Jeffrey; Finkelstein, Joel; Avorn, Jerry; Solomon, Daniel

doi: 10.1111/j.1525-1497.2004.30240.xpmid: 15333057

OBJECTIVES: To identify potential obstacles to bone mineral density (BMD) testing, we performed a structured review of current osteoporosis screening guidelines, studies of BMD testing patterns, and interventions to increase BMD testing.