Melissa L. Parkhurst, MD

Professional Background

Inpatient/ Hospital Care, University of Kansas Hospital.

Clinic, University of Kansas Hospital.
Hospital Medicine, University of Kansas Hospital

-I am an Academic Hospitalist and therefore most of my clinical time is spent also teaching residents and medical students. I do have clinical rotations during the year (consults, admitting) where I do not work with learners.

Medical Director of the Section of Hospital Medicine for The University of Kansas Health System
(2004- present)
-I became medical director in 2004 and am the first and only Director of this section
-When I started as medical director, there were only 3 Hospital Medicine faculty and Hospital Medicine practices were virtually non- existent in the Midwest region
- I formed the first direct care attending program at KUH in 2007 and created the multishift scheduling template that is still used today
- I also created the Triage Attending (AOD ) role, developed the concept of admitting dedicated shifts and overflow services to accommodate large shifts in inpatient census. I also expanded the consult service both on main campus and to cover Strawberry Hill Psychiatric Hospital
- The Hospital Medicine program has experienced dramatic growth over the years to meet the clinical volume demand while preserving an excellent educational and training experience for the Internal Medicine resident and Internal Medicine clerkship students. Our group has grown from 3 Hospital Medicine faculty in 2001 to over 85 faculty in 2020.


Medical Director of Nutrition Support Services for The University of Kansas Nutrition Support Services
( 2002- present)
I am the physician sponsor for 10 Clinical Nutrition Support Registered Dieticians and Medical Director of Nutrition Support Services for the University of Kansas Hospital. I am responsible for oversight of all ordering of adult parenteral nutrition for hospitalized patients. This requires review of parenteral nutrition orders, labs, clinical nutrition notes and signing the parenteral nutrition orders daily. Our team manages all adult Parenteral nutrition patients for the Hospital. We also provide support to the University of Kansas Pharmacy Infusion Department with management of outpatient parenteral nutrition patients. I am responsible for development and oversight of all inpatient nutrition related protocols, orders sets and quality initiatives.

• MD, University of Kansas School of Medicine
• Residency, Internal Medicine, University of Kansas School of Medicine, Kansas City, KS

• American Board of Internal Medicine