The Need for Improved End-of-Life Care Medical Education: Causes, Consequences, and Strategies for Enhancement and Integration.

End-of-life (EOL) care is a unique area of medicine that emphasizes holistic patient-centered care. It requires clinicians to consider a patients' mental, emotional, spiritual, social and physical comforts and engage patients and their families in complex discussions and decisions. It is an area of medicine that requires sensitivity in communication in order to respond to a wide range of emotions from patients and their families. Given these intricacies, it is essential that healthcare professional trainees are exposed early in their careers so they can be better equipped to address EOL situations effectively. While many medical schools have integrated this important element in pre-clinical education, a formalized and standardized curriculum could allow for students to better engage in EOLcare scenarios that they will face as future physicians. In this editorial, we discuss potential strategies to incorporate EOL care didactics and experiential learning earlier in medical education as well as the consequences of inadequate EOL care education, particularly in medical schools, in its current state.

Are Patients With an International Classification of Diseases, 10th Edition Discharge Diagnosis Code for Sepsis Different in Regard to Demographics and Outcome Variables When Comparing Those With Sepsis Only to Those Also Diagnosed With COVID-19 or Those With a COVID-19 Diagnosis Alone?

OBJECTIVES: We analyzed whether patients with the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Edition (ICD-10) discharge diagnosis code for sepsis are different in regard to demographics and outcome variables when comparing those with sepsis only to those also diagnosed with COVID-19 or those with a COVID-19 diagnosis alone. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study. SETTING: Nine hospitals in an academic health system. PATIENTS: Patients with a final ICD-10 discharge diagnostic code for sepsis only, a diagnosis of COVID-19-only, or a final sepsis ICD-10 discharge code + a diagnosis of COVID-19 admitted to the hospital were analyzed for demographic and outcome differences between the cohorts. INTERVENTIONS: None. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: A total of 11,395 patients met inclusion criteria: 6,945 patients (60.9%) were ICD-10 sepsis code only, 3,294 patients (28.9%) were COVID-19 diagnosis-only, and 1,153 patients (10.1%) were sepsis ICD-10 code + COVID-19 diagnosis. Comparing sepsis ICD-10 code + COVID-19 diagnosis patients to sepsis ICD-10 code only and COVID-19 diagnosis-only patients, the sepsis ICD-10 code + COVID-19 diagnosis patients were: older (69 [58-78] vs 67 [56-77] vs 64 [51-76] yr), less likely to be female (40.3% vs 46.7% vs 49.5%), more frequently admitted to the ICU (59.3% [684/1,153] vs 54.9% [1,810/3,297] vs 15% [1,042/6,945]), more frequently required ventilatory support (39.3% [453/1,153] vs 31.8% [1,049/3,297] vs 6.0% [417/6,945]), had longer median hospital length of stay (9 [5,16] vs 5 [3,8] vs 7. [4,13] d), and were more likely to die in the hospital (39.2% [452/1,153] vs 22.3% [735/3,297] vs 6.4% [444/6,945]). CONCLUSIONS: During the COVID-19 pandemic the sickest cohort of patients was those receiving an explicit ICD-10 code of sepsis + a COVID-19 diagnosis. A significant percentage of COVID-19 diagnosis-only patients appear to have been under-coded as they received a level of critical care (ICU admission; intubation) suggestive of the presence of acute organ dysfunction during their admission.

An Uncommon Diagnosis of Necrotizing Mastoiditis Presenting as Bell's Palsy: A Case Report.

Introduction: The benign nature of Bell's palsy has led to a lack of a standardized work-up, and dangerous underlying mimics are at risk of being missed. Case Report: An 84-year-old female with a history of vertigo presented to the emergency department with a left-sided facial droop consistent with Bell's palsy. After further work-up, the patient was diagnosed with bilateral necrotizing mastoiditis. Conclusion: Unilateral facial weakness involving the forehead and palpebral fissures is often diagnosed as idiopathic Bell's palsy. Various pathologies can present with unilateral facial weakness, and the differential needs to remain broad.