Principles and Practice of Hospital Medicine 2026: Bedside Evaluation, Inpatient Risk Stratification, and Value-Driven Care Coordination for Hospitalists

Inpatient care can go wrong even when the disease is recognized.Patients enter the hospital with incomplete information, changing physiology, competing risks, and care plans that must move across shifts, consultants, medications, procedures, discharge barriers, and post-acute needs. For hospitalists, the challenge is not simply knowing what conditions to treat; it is knowing how to reason, prioritize, communicate, reassess, and preserve accountability as the patient’s course unfolds.Principles and Practice of Hospital Medicine 2026 gives clinicians a structured approach to bedside evaluation, inpatient risk stratification, and value-driven care coordination. It focuses on the real work of hospital medicine: managing diagnostic uncertainty, stabilizing acutely ill patients, using consultation wisely, preparing for bedside procedures, protecting medication safety, improving handoffs, and planning for recovery after discharge.Built around the full hospitalization continuum, this book connects admission assessment, early risk recognition, daily reassessment, transitions of care, discharge readiness, post-acute coordination, and longitudinal recovery planning into one practical clinical framework.Inside this book, you will find guidance on:Diagnostic reasoning under uncertainty, including problem representation, differential diagnosis, probability, risk stratification, reassessment, and cognitive biasAdmission assessment, early stabilization, inpatient testing, multimorbidity, frailty, daily monitoring, and clinical deteriorationConsultation, co-management, shared decision-making, consultant communication, and integration of specialist recommendationsBedside procedures, including indications, contraindications, consent, preparation, analgesia, complication recognition, supervision, documentation, and quality reviewMedication safety, including reconciliation, high-risk medications, stewardship, renal and hepatic adjustment, geriatric risk, adverse drug events, and monitoringTransitions of care, handoffs, discharge readiness, post-acute planning, patient safety, quality improvement, leadership, communication, and systems reliabilityThe appendices include practical templates, checklists, consultation frameworks, procedure safety tools, handoff formats, discharge communication templates, and post-acute coordination tools.This book is especially useful for hospitalists, internists, advanced practice clinicians, residents, medical students, nurses, pharmacists, case managers, and interdisciplinary professionals involved in adult inpatient care. It supports individual study, clinical orientation, teaching, team discussion, quality improvement work, and hospitalist service development.For readers who want more than disease-by-disease reference material, this book offers a practical framework for thinking through uncertainty, managing inpatient risk, coordinating teams, communicating clearly, and carrying responsibility from admission through recovery planning. Read more