John Nelson writes…

Notice anything similar about these two articles?

Where have all the General Internists Gone?

and

The Impending Disappearance of the General Surgeon

Generalists, it seems, could be on the way out (more…)

John Nelson writes…

If you’re a hospitalist, you’re probably asked periodically to describe what a hospitalist does, and have probably developed a fairly standard response.  When in a social setting my response is that I’m a doctor that provides non-surgical care of adult hospitalized patients, like those with pneumonia, heart failure, stroke and other such problems.  When asked by a patient or family in the hospital, I usually give an answer that is more customized to the patient’s particular medical problem.

In November 2009 the SHM Board of Directors approved a new definition of a hospitalist and Hospital Medicine. (more…)

Mike Radzienda writes…

Remember that commercial, “Hey, you got your chocolate in my peanut butter!?”   Those two great tastes that go great together…

How about, “With a name like SMUCKERS you know it’s got to be good?”  If one had never eaten Smuckers jelly, one might have guessed otherwise.

Any-hoo…

Last week I read an article entitled “So You Want To Be An Academic Hospitalist?”  I was disappointed and I submit that the article missed an opportunity to make an important point.  Please indulge me and my lame metaphors: (more…)

John Nelson writes…

Since SHM has began gathering data in 1997, the majority of hospitalists have shifted from a fixed, or “straight,” compensation, to a compensation method that includes a variable component based on performance.  Productivity, as measured in things like RVUs or encounters, is the most common variable element, but quality metrics used as a basis for a portion of compensation are rapidly gaining in popularity.

In late 2008, SHM’s Practice Analysis Committee conducted a survey focused on hospitalist turnover and participation in quality initiatives.  (more…)

John Nelson writes…

Sometimes I think I hear something akin to the giant sucking sound first described by Ross Perot.  Perot was describing the loss of jobs as a result of NAFTA, but the loss of talent in the ranks of hospitalists that care for patients creates the sound I hear.

I just returned from SHM’s biggest event of the year – Hospital Medicine 2009.  Like all the meetings before it, I came away with a good dose of enthusiasm and education to help fuel my career for another year.  And like the last few meetings, Win Whitcomb and I reminisced about how far things have come since we first started talking about forming a medical society for the nation’s hospitalists in 1996.  (Win and I founded SHM.) (more…)

Rob Bessler writes…

I am fired up. At the recent phoenix group meeting I attended we heard from a physician working for an organization funded by the American Academy of Family Practice Physicians that is spending 16MM dollars to fund this think tank and action oriented group focused on ensuring their voice is heard and that family physicians role in our future healthcare system are at the center. I applaud them for this effort.

What I left with from a few hours of education and discourse was how important hospitalists are to viability of whatever government based payment system occurs in the future. Of course I knew this from an academic perspective but now it is flowing through my veins. (more…)

Robert Chang writes…

Past distinctions
The phrase evokes different emotions from people, mainly memories of long boring stories that seem unrelated to the way things are now.  Despite a promise to myself, I actually caught myself saying it the other day listening to a story about some triage mishap for a patient.  But I realized that underneath the long boring story I was about to tell was history, that things change and on top of that, the contrast can help us understand the now.  I’ve been at the same academic institution since I started medical school so I have a history here at Michigan.  I’ve watched how things developed, why things changed and have been a part of the culture of this place – “this is how we do it here”.  (more…)

Rob Bessler writes…

Welcome to our SHM blog. I would like to thank Leslie Flores and SHM for giving me the opportunity to stimulate discussion on issues relevant to all of us blogging to the practice management blog.  My role and work life for the past 9 years have been focused on building a sustainable high quality hospitalist practice model. We have done so by recruiting and retaining great people and continually learning how to make the practice better at each site. I will not be speaking from the standpoint of Sound Inpatient Physicians alone but from all that we have seen from both taking over other challenged practices and solving many of our hospitalist communities challenges. (more…)

Leslie Flores writes…

Welcome to SHM’s newest online endeavor, The Hospitalist Leader blog.  Your blogging team is excited about this great opportunity to explore a wide range of practice management topics, and we hope that our posts invite a lot of member interaction, interesting dialogue, and the regular expression of differing opinions and points of view.

Our goal is to offer commentaries about current hospitalist practice management issues that are interesting, insightful, original, and even occasionally a bit provocative.  We aim to serve as a resource and to educate – but even more important, we want to foster broader thinking and a free exchange of perspectives and ideas that will ultimately lead to innovation and new best practices. (more…)