Hospital Medicine Clinical Guidelines
The hospital medicine guideline index: governing society guidelines for adult inpatient care, from CAP and C. difficile through VTE, PE, glycemia, and Beers.
Hospital Medicine
The hospital medicine department hub, indexing the governing society guidelines for adult inpatient care: pneumonia, C. difficile, UTI, VTE, PE, and glycemia.
Hospital medicine is the discipline of caring for acutely ill adults admitted to a general medical service: diagnosis and treatment of the common admitting conditions, management of chronic disease during an acute stay, prevention of hospital-acquired complications such as venous thromboembolism and Clostridioides difficile infection, coordination of consulting services, and the transitions into and out of the hospital. Its practitioners, hospitalists, are usually internists and the clinicians who most often place the peripheral and central lines, order the anticoagulation, and reconcile the medications that the other departments on this site depend on.
This section is new. It currently indexes the governing professional-society guidelines for adult inpatient medicine, each with its publisher, current edition, scope, and a verified source. Multi-part syntheses in the format used by the Critical Care and Emergency Medicine departments are being written for this department and will be linked from this page as they publish.
Governing guidelines
| Guideline | Publisher | Edition | Scope | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Diagnosis and Treatment of Adults with Community-acquired Pneumonia | ATS / IDSA | 2019; ATS published a 2025 update that IDSA did not endorse, so the 2019 document remains the joint guideline | Diagnostic testing, site-of-care determination, initial empiric antibiotic selection, and subsequent management for immunocompetent adults with CAP | PubMed |
| 2021 Focused Update Guidelines on Management of Clostridioides difficile Infection in Adults | IDSA / SHEA | 2021 | Focused update on the use of fidaxomicin and bezlotoxumab in adult CDI, supplementing the 2017 guideline | IDSA |
| Guideline on Management and Treatment of Complicated Urinary Tract Infections | IDSA | 2025 | Classification of uncomplicated and complicated UTI, empiric antibiotic selection, timing of IV-to-oral switch, and duration of therapy in inpatient and outpatient settings | IDSA |
| 2018 Guidelines for Management of Venous Thromboembolism: Prophylaxis for Hospitalized and Nonhospitalized Medical Patients | ASH | 2018 (reviewed 2022, maintained) | VTE prophylaxis in acutely and critically ill hospitalized medical patients and in selected nonhospitalized populations | Blood Advances |
| 2020 Guidelines for Management of Venous Thromboembolism: Treatment of Deep Vein Thrombosis and Pulmonary Embolism | ASH | 2020 (reviewed 2022, maintained) | Treatment of established DVT and PE, including initial management, anticoagulant selection, and duration | Blood Advances |
| Antithrombotic Therapy for VTE Disease: Second Update of the CHEST Guideline and Expert Panel Report | CHEST | 2021 | Antithrombotic management of VTE from initial management through secondary prevention and risk reduction of post-thrombotic syndrome; 29 guidance statements across 17 PICO questions | PubMed |
| 2026 Guideline for the Evaluation and Management of Acute Pulmonary Embolism in Adults | AHA / ACC with ACCP, ACEP, CHEST, SCAI, SHM, SIR, SVM, SVN | 2026 | Evaluation, management, and follow-up of acute PE in adults, including clinical assessment, D-dimer testing, imaging, and the Acute Pulmonary Embolism Clinical Categories | Circulation |
| Standards of Care in Diabetes, Section 16: Diabetes Care in the Hospital | ADA | 2026 | Glycemic goals, insulin therapy, diabetes technology, and perioperative glycemic management for hospitalized people with diabetes | Diabetes Care |
| Management of Hyperglycemia in Hospitalized Adult Patients in Non-Critical Care Settings | Endocrine Society | 2022 | Treatment of hyperglycemia in non-critically ill hospitalized adults with diabetes or newly recognized or stress-induced hyperglycemia, including CGM, insulin pump therapy, insulin regimens, and noninsulin therapies | PubMed |
| American Geriatrics Society 2023 Updated AGS Beers Criteria for Potentially Inappropriate Medication Use in Older Adults | AGS | 2023 | Explicit list of medications best avoided by older adults in most circumstances or under specific diseases or conditions | PubMed |
| The ASAM Clinical Practice Guideline on Alcohol Withdrawal Management | ASAM | 2020 | Diagnosis, risk stratification, monitoring, and treatment of alcohol withdrawal syndrome in ambulatory and inpatient settings | ASAM |
| Recommendations on the Use of Ultrasound Guidance for Central and Peripheral Vascular Access in Adults: A Position Statement | SHM | 2019 | Ultrasound technique, site selection, and training for central and peripheral vascular access performed by hospitalists | PubMed |
How this section is used
For protocol development, start from the source list above. Each row names the publisher and the current edition so that a protocol committee can confirm it is working from the governing document rather than a secondary summary, and the scope column states which clinical question each guideline answers so that adjacent sources, such as the three VTE guidelines, are not read as competing.
For point-of-care questions, Lumen retrieves from this corpus and cites the page it drew from. See how a hospital medicine group runs these guidelines as one shared Lumen workspace.
Related departments
- Vascular Access: the peripheral and central lines hospitalists place and maintain, and the SHM ultrasound position statement indexed above
- Critical Care: the VTE prophylaxis, transfusion, and sepsis series, and the ICU-to-ward transition
- Emergency Medicine: where community-acquired pneumonia, sepsis, and pulmonary embolism are first worked up before admission
- Oncology: cancer-associated thrombosis and febrile neutropenia admitted to a medical service
- Infection Prevention: C. difficile transmission, device-associated infection, and hand hygiene on the wards
- Clinical Pharmacy: antimicrobial stewardship, the Beers Criteria, and anticoagulant management shared between the two departments
- Cardiology: atrial fibrillation anticoagulation and heart failure admissions comanaged with hospitalists
- Nephrology and Dialysis: acute kidney injury and drug dosing in chronic kidney disease on the medical wards
- Neurology and Stroke: stroke and status epilepticus admitted through the medical service
- Perioperative and Anesthesia: perioperative medical consultation and the ADA perioperative glycemic goals
- Surgery and Trauma: medical comanagement of surgical and trauma inpatients
Frequently asked questions
What does the hospital medicine section of The Clinical Database cover?
Hospital medicine is the care of acutely ill adults admitted to a general medical service. This section indexes the professional-society guidelines that govern that care: ATS/IDSA community-acquired pneumonia, IDSA/SHEA Clostridioides difficile, IDSA complicated urinary tract infection, ASH and CHEST venous thromboembolism, the 2026 AHA/ACC acute pulmonary embolism guideline, ADA and Endocrine Society inpatient glycemic management, the AGS Beers Criteria, the ASAM alcohol withdrawal guideline, and the SHM position statement on ultrasound-guided vascular access.
Is this section complete?
No. The section is new. It currently carries the governing guideline index with a verified source for each row. Multi-part syntheses in the format used by the ICU and Emergency Medicine departments are being written and will be linked from this page as each one publishes.
Which VTE guideline applies to a hospitalized medical patient?
Three sources cover different questions. The ASH 2018 guideline addresses VTE prophylaxis for hospitalized and nonhospitalized medical patients. The ASH 2020 guideline and the CHEST 2021 second update address treatment of established deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism. The 2026 AHA/ACC multisociety guideline, which the Society of Hospital Medicine co-authored, addresses evaluation and management of acute pulmonary embolism specifically. Each row in the table states which question its source answers.
Does this page give doses, thresholds, or treatment algorithms?
No. Recommendation-level content belongs to the reviewed syntheses, which cite the source for every statement. This page identifies the governing guideline, its publisher, its current edition, and where to read it.
Are these guidelines a substitute for institutional protocols?
No. They are the published professional-society recommendations that institutional protocols are built from. Local protocols and medical direction govern actual care.