Hospital Medicine
Welcome to the Division of Hospital Medicine, the youngest (created in July 2017) and the largest Division within the Department of Internal Medicine. The faculty within the Division specializes in the comprehensive care of hospitalized patients from the moment the decision is made that a patient needs to be admitted through discharge. Faculty within the Division evaluates patients holistically and make treatment decisions with the whole patient in mind and coordinate care with other specialists when needed. With more than 75 physician and advanced care providers within the VCU Health System, we are available to meet the needs of our patients 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year. The Division is committed to providing the highest quality of clinical care, the highest value clinical care, and the most cost-effective clinical care to our patients with great compassion.
About the Chair
- Kimbereley Ackerman, DO
- Colin Banas, MD, MSHA
- Michael Bradley, MD
- Michelle Brooks, MD
- Benjamin Chopski, DO
- Melissa Chouinard, MD
- Aimee Collins, MD
- Leah Couture, MD
- Candice Culpepper, MD
- Alan Dow, MD, MSHA
- Shelley Edwards, MD
- Brandon Frett, MD
- Adam Garber, MD
- Margaret Guy, MD
- Sarah Hartigan, MD
- Nasiffa Hossain, MD
- David Jessee, MD
- Dinesh Kadariya, MD
- Jessica L. Keiser, MD - Associate Chair for Clinical Operations
- Abhay Khashu, MD
- Rajesh Konjeti, MD
- Jatinder Lachar, MD
- Carolyn Marcelo, MD
- Catherine J. Marcelo, MD
- Amr Marawan, MD
- Heather Masters, MD, SFHM, FACP
- Georgia N. McIntosh, MD
- Evan Meadors, MD
- Pete D. Meliagros, MD
- Rebecca E. Miller, MD
- Vimal K. Mishra, MD, MMCi
- Sarika S. Modi, MD
- Leslie Moses, MD
- Fnu Nutan, MD
- Laura E. Paletta-Hobbs, MD
- Kimberly S. Pedram, MD - Associate Chair for Medical Education
- Manish Pradhan, MD
- Shanti K. Pradhan, MD
- Rehan Qayyum, MD, MHS, FAHA - Division Chair
- Brenda A. Queen, MD
- Evan M. Ritter, MD
- Arash Samarghandi, MD
- Georgia Thomas, MD, PhD
- Melissa Warwick, MD
- Dennis D. Wixted, MD
- Alice Wong, MD
Advanced Practice Providers
- Julia Amantea, ANCP
- Krystle Brunson, FNP
- Nicole Carter, FNP - Lead
- Rinequa Davis, ACNPC-AG
- Pamela Derby, FNP
- Jessica Eckard, AGACNP
- Heather Goldston, AGACNP
- Alysson Gordon, ACNP
- Timothy Hartzler, AGACNP
- Carman Henderson, FNP
- Maheswari Murugesan, ACNP
- Laura Tormey, ACNP
- Alison Wilkins, FNP
The Division of Hospital Medicine provides these clinical services through the VCU Medical Campus.
Independent Inpatient Clinical Service
This service takes care of approximately 25% of all patients admitted to the hospital. The service consists of 8 rounding teams; each team consists of a physician and a nurse practitioner. This service also provides clinical teaching to fourth year medical students during their medicine rotation. All hospitalists rotate through this service. Majority of the patients on a given team are geographically located. As each medicine floor has the capability to provide intermediate (or step-down) care, each team may have some intermediate care patients. Four medical directors (Drs. Kim Pedram, Michelle Brooks, Laura Paletta-Hobbs, and Jatinder Lachar) in concert with nurse managers of the floors support clinical care.
Resident-Run Inpatient Clinical Service
Academic hospitalists rotate through three (out of five) formal general internal medicine teaching teams; each team is staffed by one Internal Medicine resident and two interns or by two PGY2 internal medicine residents without interns (ward managers). Each team also has third year medical students. Almost all patients on each team are geographically located to provide better teamwork and communication.
Consult and Co-management Service
One team provides inpatient general medicine consultation to patients admitted on non-medicine services. This team consists of an academic hospitalist attending, a resident, an intern, and 1-2 medical student(s). Currently, we provide co-management service to a select group of patients on the Orthopedic Service. Dr. Dennis Wixted is the medical director for this service.
MAA Service
We have a unique relationship with our Emergency Medicine colleagues maintained by the presence of the Medical Admitting Attending (MAA). This Hospitalist is stationed in the ED and serves as a liaison between the inpatient medicine teams, Emergency Department, and outside hospital transfers. The MAA receives and assesses patients from ED providers, facilitate their early care, and decide their disposition. Similarly, MAA receives transfer calls from regional hospitals, determines the appropriateness of transfer, and when appropriate accepts patients on behalf of medicine teams.
Procedure Service
The Medicine Procedure consult service was established in July 2016 to further the service, throughput, and academic mission of the Hospital Medicine. This team provides high quality, safe, and efficient bedside procedure services to adult inpatients at VCU Health. A small group of highly skilled and trained hospitalists rotate through this service along with at least one junior resident (PGY-2). The rotation is also offered to IM-Peds residents and Internal Medicine PGY-3 residents as an elective. During their two week rotation, residents train on a simulation based model, provide consultative services, triage and perform supervised bedside procedures, such as central venous lines, lumbar punctures, abdominal paracentesis, and knee arthrocentesis. Residents are also taught the use of ultrasound for bedside procedures. Dr. Manpreet Malik is the medical director for this service.
GME Night Medicine
The GME night medicine service provides teaching and supervision of the internal medicine night float residents. GME night medicine curriculum includes formal midnight report (similar to morning report in structure) as well as informal bedside teaching. In addition, GME night medicine faculty independently covers 8 teaching teams for two nights per week when residents are off. One hospitalist attending staffs this team during the resident covered nights while two hospitalists staff this service when residents are off. Dr. Rajesh Konjeti is the liaison for this service to the residency program.
Support services for other Divisions and the Institution
Hospital Medicine attending also provide coverage to the Palliative Care Medicine and Geriatrics Consult service during evening and nights. In addition, hospitalists are also the responsible physicians for in-hospital codes. Several hospitalists hold senior leadership positions within the institution including Chief Medical Informatics Officer (Dr. Colin Banas), Associate Chief Medical Officer (Dr. Heather Masters), Medical Director, TeleHealth (Dr. Vimal Mishra), Medication Safety Chair (Dr. Melissa Chouinard), and Associate Chair for Quality Department of Medicine (Dr. Sarah Hartigan).
The research conducted at the Division of Hospital Medicine at the Virginia Commonwealth University is diverse. The diversity of research interests of our hospitalists is reflected in research studies that are currently underway within the Division of Hospital Medicine.
Research Studies
Molecular and Genetics Research
- Pharmacogenomics of Antiplatelet Response (PARes Study) [PI: Rehan Qayyum, MD, MHS, FAHA] https://www.ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT02234427; NCT01815008; NCT01894555.
- Prediction of GVHD in Bone Marrow Transplant Patients using Exome Sequencing [PI: Amir Toor, MD]
Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses
- Effect of Physician Burnout on Patient-Centered Outcomes [PI: Georgia McIntosh, MD]
- Health Care Quality in the STEEP Framework [PI: Alan Dow, MD, MSHA]
- Patient problems Identified after discharge during Post-Discharge Phone Calls [PI: Rehan Qayyum, MD, MHS, FAHA]
Education Research
- Coaching the Clinical Coach: Peer Observation of Bedside Teaching Rounds [PI: Kimberly Pedram, MD]
- Perceptions and Knowledge Acquisition During Grand Rounds [PI: Leah Couture, MD]
- IPASS RAMS Study [Rajesh Venkata Konjeti, MD]
Patient Satisfaction, Discharge, and Re-admissions Research
- Peak Inspiratory Flow Rate and Readmissions in Patients with Acute Exacerbation of COPD [PI: Arash Samarghandi, MD]
- Patients’ Perceptions of Relative Importance of Discharge Elements (PRIDE) Study [PI: Rehan Qayyum, MD, MHS, FAHA]
- Measuring Patient Satisfaction using Five-Item Patient Satisfaction Tool: Assessment and Validation [PI: Rehan Qayyum, MD, MHS, FAHA]
- The Effects of Medicare Penalties on 30-Day Readmission Rates [PI: Rehan Qayyum, MD, MHS, FAHA]
- The Relationship between COPD Readmission Penalties and Mortality [PI: Arash Samarghandi, MD]
- Effect of Post-Discharge Follow-up Phone Calls on Patient Satisfaction and Readmission Rates [PI: Benjamin Chopski, DO]
- The Effects of Including Patient Information in DRG-based LOS to Improve Actual LOS Prediction [PI: Vimal Mishra, MD]
- Predicting LOS Using Machine Learning Tools [PI: Vimal Mishra, MD]
Burnout, Empathy, and Work-Engagement Research
- Workplace Engagement and Burnout Study (WEBS) [PI: Georgia McIntosh, MD]
- Facial Recognition of the Provider Stress and Burnout [PI: Jonathan DeShazo, PhD and Colin Banas, MD, MSHA]
- Burnout, Work Engagement, & Empathy – Study in collaboration with University of Tennessee College of Medicine at Chattanooga [PI: Rehan Qayyum, MD, MHS, FAHA]
Observational Studies
- The Relationship between Platelet-Lymphocyte Ratio and All-Cause Mortality in General Population [PI: Kanupriya Mathur, MD]
- The Association between Serum Vitamin D Levels and Cardiorespiratory Fitness in the Adult Population of the Unites States [PI: Amr Marawan, MD]
- The Association between Anti-Mullerian Hormone and C-Reactive Protein in Men [PI: Dinesh Kadariya, MD]
- The Association between Urinary Genistein Levels and Mortality among Adults in the United States [PI: Carolyn Marcelo, MD]
Sickle Cell Research
- Functional Pain Assessment in Sickle Cell Patients [PI: Margaret Guy, MD]
- Effects of Mobility on Improvement of Pain in Sickle Cell Patients [PI: Jessica Keiser, MD]
Clinical Research Studies
- Procedural Medicine [PI: Manpreet Malik, MD]
- Obtaining Venous Access in Hospitalized Patients [PI: Evan Ritter, MD]
- Does Ultrasound Guidance Reduce Complications in Inpatient Paracentesis? [PI: Benjamin Chopski, DO]
Recent Publications
- A. Dow and G. Thibault, “Interprofessional Education - A Foundation for a New Approach to Health Care.,” N. Engl. J. Med., vol. 377, no. 9, pp. 803–805, Aug. 2017.
- M. M. Bashir, M. Sohail, A. Wahab, U. Iqbal, R. Qayyum, and S. N. Jan, “Outcomes of post burn flexion contracture release under tourniquet versus tumescent technique in children.,” Burns, vol. 44, no. 3, pp. 678–682, May 2018.
- J. Perkins, N. K. Voore, J. Patel, S. Sanna, E. Mann, S. Zakaria, and A. Gozu, “Is Telemetry Monitoring Useful in Patients Admitted With Suspected Acute Coronary Syndrome?,” Am. J. Med. Qual., vol. 32, no. 6, pp. 638–643, Nov. 2017.
- S. L. Littauer, D. L. Dixon, V. K. Mishra, E. M. Sisson, and T. M. Salgado, “Pharmacists providing care in the outpatient setting through telemedicine models: a narrative review.,” Pharm. Pract. (Granada)., vol. 15, no. 4, p. 1134, Dec. 2017.
- V. Koparde, B. Abdul Razzaq, T. Suntum, R. Sabo, A. Scalora, M. Serrano, M. Jameson-Lee, C. Hall, D. Kobulnicky, N. Sheth, J. Feltz, D. Contaifer, D. Wijesinghe, J. Reed, C. Roberts, R. Qayyum, G. Buck, M. Neale, and A. Toor, “Dynamical system modeling to simulate donor T cell response to whole exome sequencing-derived recipient peptides: Understanding randomness in alloreactivity incidence following stem cell transplantation.,” PLoS One, vol. 12, no. 12, p. e0187771, Dec. 2017.
- D. L. Dixon, L. F. Buckley, C. R. Trankle, D. Kadariya, and A. Abbate, “Clinical utility of evolocumab in the management of hyperlipidemia: patient selection and follow-up,” Drug Des. Devel. Ther., vol. Volume 11, pp. 2121–2129, Jul. 2017.
- A. S. Bzowyckyj, A. Dow, and M. S. Knab, “Evaluating the Impact of Educational Interventions on Patients and Communities,” Acad. Med., vol. 92, no. 11, pp. 1531–1535, Nov. 2017.
- J. H. Hyde and R. Qayyum, “The effect of sleep duration on exhaled nitric oxide levels in U.S. adults,” Sleep Breath., vol. 21, no. 4, pp. 809–813, Dec. 2017.
- D. Ganapathy, C. Acharya, J. Lachar, K. Patidar, R. K. Sterling, M. B. White, C. Ignudo, S. Bommidi, J. DeSoto, L. R. Thacker, S. Matherly, J. Shaw, M. S. Siddiqui, P. Puri, A. J. Sanyal, V. Luketic, H. Lee, R. T. Stravitz, and J. S. Bajaj, “The patient buddy app can potentially prevent hepatic encephalopathy-related readmissions,” Liver Int., vol. 37, no. 12, pp. 1843–1851, Dec. 2017.
- A. Saini, K. Mathur, and G. Kalahasty, “‘Landolfi’s Sign’—Eyes Don’t See What the Mind Does Not Know!,” Am. J. Med., vol. 130, no. 12, pp. e531–e532, Dec. 2017.
- F. Nutan and A. G. Ortega-Loayza, “Cutaneous Lupus: A Brief Review of Old and New Medical Therapeutic Options,” J. Investig. Dermatology Symp. Proc., vol. 18, no. 2, pp. S64–S68, Oct. 2017.
- K. Mathur, A. Saini, K. A. Ellenbogen, and R. K. Shepard, “Profound Sinoatrial Arrest Associated with Ibrutinib,” Case Rep. Oncol. Med., vol. 2017, pp. 1–3, 2017.
- A. Mehta, J. Patel, M. Al Rifai, C. R. Ayers, I. J. Neeland, A. M. Kanaya, N. Kandula, M. J. Blaha, K. Nasir, R. S. Blumenthal, and P. H. Joshi, “Inflammation and coronary artery calcification in South Asians: The Mediators of Atherosclerosis in South Asians Living in America (MASALA) study,” Atherosclerosis, vol. 270, pp. 49–56, Mar. 2018.
- J. Patel, M. Al Rifai, M. T. Scheuner, S. Shea, R. S. Blumenthal, K. Nasir, M. J. Blaha, and J. W. McEvoy, “Basic vs More Complex Definitions of Family History in the Prediction of Coronary Heart Disease: The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis,” Mayo Clin. Proc., vol. 93, no. 9, pp. 1213–1223, Sep. 2018.
- A. W. Dow, X. Zhu, D. Sewell, C. A. Banas, V. Mishra, and S.-P. Tu, “Teamwork on the rocks: Rethinking interprofessional practice as networking.,” J. Interprof. Care, vol. 31, no. 6, pp. 677–678, Nov. 2017.
- D. DiazGranados, A. W. Dow, N. Appelbaum, P. E. Mazmanian, and S. M. Retchin, “Interprofessional practice in different patient care settings: A qualitative exploration.,” J. Interprof. Care, vol. 32, no. 2, pp. 151–159, Mar. 2018.
- S. Carbone, J. M. Canada, H. E. Billingsley, D. Kadariya, D. L. Dixon, C. R. Trankle, L. F. Buckley, R. Markley, C. Vo, H. Medina de Chazal, S. Christopher, R. Buzzetti, B. W. Van Tassell, and A. Abbate, “Effects of empagliflozin on cardiorespiratory fitness and significant interaction of loop diuretics.,” Diabetes. Obes. Metab., vol. 20, no. 8, pp. 2014–2018, Aug. 2018.
- V. R. Konjeti, G. M. Hefferman, S. Paluri, and P. Ganjoo, “Primary Pancreatic Burkitt’s Lymphoma: A Case Report and Review of the Literature.,” Case Rep. Gastrointest. Med., vol. 2018, p. 5952315, 2018.
- B. W. Van Tassell, J. Canada, S. Carbone, C. Trankle, L. Buckley, C. Oddi Erdle, N. A. Abouzaki, D. Dixon, D. Kadariya, S. Christopher, A. Schatz, J. Regan, M. Viscusi, M. Del Buono, R. Melchior, P. Mankad, J. Lu, R. Sculthorpe, G. Biondi-Zoccai, E. Lesnefsky, R. Arena, and A. Abbate, “Interleukin-1 Blockade in Recently Decompensated Systolic Heart Failure,” Circ. Hear. Fail., vol. 10, no. 11, p. e004373, Nov. 2017.
- J. M. Canada, C. R. Trankle, L. F. Buckley, S. Carbone, N. A. Abouzaki, D. Kadariya, K. Shah, R. Cooke, M. C. Kontos, J. Patel, P. Mankad, A. Schatz, A. Bhatnagar, R. Arena, B. W. Van Tassell, and A. Abbate, “Severely Impaired Cardiorespiratory Fitness in Patients With Recently Decompensated Systolic Heart Failure.,” Am. J. Cardiol., vol. 120, no. 10, pp. 1854–1857, Nov. 2017.
- K. S. Lockeman, N. P. Appelbaum, A. W. Dow, S. Orr, T. A. Huff, C. J. Hogan, and B. A. Queen, “The effect of an interprofessional simulation-based education program on perceptions and stereotypes of nursing and medical students: A quasi-experimental study.,” Nurse Educ. Today, vol. 58, pp. 32–37, Nov. 2017.
- J. Al-Khafaji, F. Ganz-Lord, V. R. Konjeti, and A. D. Viny, “A Case of Familial Mediterranean Fever with Extensive Lymphadenopathy and Complex Heterozygous Genotype Presenting in the Fourth Decade.,” Case Rep. Rheumatol., vol. 2018, p. 9670801, 2018.
- N. Yao, X. Zhu, A. Dow, V. K. Mishra, A. Phillips, and S.-P. Tu, “An exploratory study of networks constructed using access data from an electronic health record.,” J. Interprof. Care, pp. 1–8, Jul. 2018.
- H. H. Lin and A. M. Garber, “Intra-Abdominal Varix Rupture: A Life-Threatening Cause of Hemoperitoneum.,” Am. J. Med., Jun. 2018.
- L. F. Buckley, S. Carbone, C. R. Trankle, J. M. Canada, C. O. Erdle, J. A. Regan, M. M. Viscusi, D. Kadariya, H. Billingsley, R. Arena, A. Abbate, and B. W. Van Tassell, “Effect of Interleukin-1 Blockade on Left Ventricular Systolic Performance and Work: A Post Hoc Pooled Analysis of 2 Clinical Trials.,” J. Cardiovasc. Pharmacol., vol. 72, no. 1, pp. 68–70, Jul. 2018.
- A. Samarghandi, S. Ahuja, V. Jindal, S. Gupta, and I. Fulger, “Hypereosinophilic syndrome preceding a diagnosis of B-cell lymphoma.,” Tumori, p. 300891618763211, Mar. 2018.
- B. V John, T. Aiken, A. Garber, D. Thomas, R. Lopez, D. Patil, V. R. Konjeti, J. J. Fung, A. J. McCollough, and M. Askar, “Recipient But Not Donor Adiponectin Polymorphisms Are Associated With Early Posttransplant Hepatic Steatosis in Patients Transplanted for Non-Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease Indications.,” Exp. Clin. Transplant., vol. 16, no. 4, pp. 439–445, 2018.
- V. R. Konjeti and B. V John, “Interaction Between Hepatocellular Carcinoma and Hepatitis C Eradication With Direct-acting Antiviral Therapy.,” Curr. Treat. Options Gastroenterol., vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 203–214, Jun. 2018.
- D. F. Sittig, M. Salimi, R. Aiyagari, C. Banas, B. Clay, K. A. Gibson, A. Goel, R. Hines, C. A. Longhurst, V. Mishra, A. M. Sirajuddin, T. Satterly, and H. Singh, “Adherence to recommended electronic health record safety practices across eight health care organizations,” J. Am. Med. Informatics Assoc., vol. 25, no. 7, pp. 913–918, Jul. 2018.
- C. Ray, S. E. Bishop, and A. W. Dow, “Rethinking the Match,” Acad. Med., vol. 93, no. 1, pp. 45–47, Jan. 2018.
- P. Bedoya, K. Neuhausen, A. W. Dow, E. M. Brooks, D. Mautner, and R. S. Etz, “Student Hotspotting: Teaching the Interprofessional Care of Complex Patients.,” Acad. Med., vol. 93, no. 1, pp. 56–59, Jan. 2018.
- Z. Siddiqui, S. Berry, A. Bertram, L. Allen, E. Hoyer, N. Durkin, R. Qayyum, E. Wick, P. Pronovost, and D. J. Brotman, “Does Patient Experience Predict 30-Day Readmission? A Patient-Level Analysis of HCAHPS Data,” J Hosp Med, vol. EPUB Ahead, no. of print, 2018.
- C. Marcelo and F. Farooq, “A Trich-y Fungus: A Unique Presentation of Disseminated Trichosporon mycotoxinivorans Infection,” J Pioneer Med Sci, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 37–40, 2018.
- C. Marcelo, M. Warwick, C. Marcelo, M. Malik, and R. Qayyum, “The relationship between urinary genistein levels and serum alanine aminotransferase levels in adults in the USA: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999-2010.,” Eur. J. Gastroenterol. Hepatol., vol. 30, no. 8, pp. 904–909, Aug. 2018.
- A. W. Dow, C. K. Ivey, and B. B. Shulman, “The Future of Pediatric Speech-Language Pathology in a More Collaborative World.,” Pediatr. Clin. North Am., vol. 65, no. 1, pp. 171–177, Feb. 2018.
- L. F. Buckley, J. M. Canada, M. G. Del Buono, S. Carbone, C. R. Trankle, H. Billingsley, D. Kadariya, R. Arena, B. W. Van Tassell, and A. Abbate, “Low NT-proBNP levels in overweight and obese patients do not rule out a diagnosis of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction.,” ESC Hear. Fail., vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 372–378, Apr. 2018.
Division of Hospital Medicine
Department of Internal Medicine
Box 980102
Richmond, VA 23298
Division Contacts
Medicine
Rehan Qayyum, MD, MHS, FAHA
Division Chair
Box 980102
Email: rehan.qayyum@vcuhealth.org
Jessica Keiser, MD
Division Associate Chair for Clinical Operations
Box 980102
Email: jessica.keiser@vcuhealth.org
Kimberly Pedram, MD
Division Associate Chair for Medical Education
Box 980102
Email: kimberly.pedram@vcuhealth.org
Administration
Zee Dabney
Division Administrator
Box 980102
Phone: (804) 628-9613
Email: zenobia.dabney@vcuhealth.org