FOUNDATIONS OF HOSPITAL MEDICINE: A Practical Guide To Inpatient Diagnosis, Acute Care, Clinical Management, and Evidence-Based Decision-Making for Medical Students, Residents, and Hospitalists

Hospital medicine requires clinicians to think clearly, act promptly, and coordinate care across a broad range of acute and complex medical conditions. Every admission presents its own challenges: symptoms may be unclear, test results may change rapidly, and treatment decisions often need to be made before the full clinical picture emerges.

Residents and hospitalists must recognise early warning signs, interpret laboratory and imaging findings, establish a focused differential diagnosis, initiate appropriate treatment, and monitor the patient’s response. They must also manage medications, prevent avoidable complications, communicate with multidisciplinary teams, and guide patients safely through admission, treatment, discharge, and follow-up.

Foundations of Hospital Medicine is a practical clinical textbook designed to strengthen the knowledge and reasoning skills required for modern inpatient care. It brings together pathophysiology, bedside assessment, diagnostic reasoning, evidence-based management, patient safety, and collaborative decision-making in one structured resource.

Rather than presenting inpatient medicine as a collection of isolated facts, the book explains how clinical findings connect to underlying disease processes and how those connections guide diagnosis and treatment. Readers are supported in understanding what to assess, how to interpret changing clinical information, when to escalate care, and how to adapt management when a patient does not respond as expected.

The book also examines the wider responsibilities of hospital-based clinicians, including safe handoffs, medication reconciliation, discharge planning, ethical decision-making, communication with patients and families, and coordination across medical, surgical, nursing, pharmacy, and allied healthcare teams.

Inside, readers will explore:

• The hospitalist’s clinical role and professional responsibilities
• Admission assessment, discharge planning, handoff safety, and medication reconciliation
• Acute respiratory failure and mechanical ventilation
• Sepsis, septic shock, and haemodynamic management
• Acute kidney injury and fluid-electrolyte disorders
• Cardiac, neurological, gastrointestinal, and glycaemic emergencies
• Venous thromboembolism and anticoagulation
• Hospital-acquired infections and antimicrobial stewardship
• Perioperative medicine and surgical co-management
• Haematological disorders and transfusion medicine
• Palliative care and goals-of-care conversations
• Clinical scoring systems and laboratory reference ranges

Written primarily for internal medicine residents, hospitalist fellows, and early-career hospitalists, this book can also serve medical students, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and other clinicians involved in the care of hospitalised adults.

Its organised chapter structure makes it suitable for guided study, clinical revision, and reference when reviewing the major conditions encountered on inpatient medical services.

Strengthen your understanding of inpatient diagnosis, acute clinical management, patient safety, and multidisciplinary care with a practical resource built around the realities of hospital medicine.

Use Foundations of Hospital Medicine to develop the clinical knowledge, structured reasoning, and professional awareness needed to approach hospitalised patients with greater confidence and clarity.