Hospital Medicine Handbook

Hospital Medicine Handbook is a practical guide to the work that begins when a patient is admitted and continues until the next setting of care is ready to take over.

Hospital medicine requires more than identifying a diagnosis. It requires setting priorities, managing uncertainty, following clinical trends, coordinating with consultants and care teams, preventing avoidable harm, and preparing patients for a safe transition after discharge.

• Admission frameworks for evaluating unstable patients, identifying urgent problems, organizing the initial workup, and creating a clear first-day plan

• Practical approaches to common inpatient conditions, including sepsis, pneumonia, heart failure, COPD exacerbations, acute kidney injury, electrolyte disorders, delirium, diabetes complications, gastrointestinal bleeding, and venous thromboembolism

• Daily-management tools for reviewing vital signs, laboratory trends, imaging, medication changes, fluid balance, mobility, nutrition, and response to treatment

• Guidance on recognizing deterioration, responding to new symptoms, reassessing a working diagnosis, and knowing when escalation is needed

• Core principles of medication safety, antimicrobial stewardship, VTE prevention, fall prevention, pressure-injury prevention, and reduction of hospital-associated harm

• Communication strategies for handoffs, consultant collaboration, family updates, cross-cover concerns, and multidisciplinary care planning

• Discharge-planning essentials, including medication reconciliation, pending-test follow-up, patient education, post-hospital appointments, and communication with outpatient clinicians

Written for medical students, interns, residents, hospitalists, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and inpatient-care learners, this handbook is designed to support practical bedside decisions.

Hospital Medicine Handbook helps readers move through the full inpatient process with clearer priorities-from the first admission order to a safer, more organized discharge plan.