Troy Ahlstrom writes…

The SHM Productivity Survey Closes in a Mere Month.

The MGMA-SHM Hospitalist Productivity and Compensation Survey is ongoing NOW, and data submission closes March 12th.  As you know, SHM has provided the most comprehensive data set and incisive analysis regarding Hospitalist practice for 10 years now.  We are not the only source of such information, but we have provided the most detailed, comprehensive analysis of Hospitalist practice in the past.

This year, in 2010, with all of the tumult and unrest over budgets, the economy, and healthcare reform, we will all need (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…)

John Nelson writes…

It is easy for a hospitalist group leader to focus principally on creating and fine tuning the work schedule, refereeing discussions and disputes with other specialties, and sitting in on many hospital committees.  Yet is important to recognize that these activities aren’t enough to ensure the practice will continue to thrive.  They are important activities to maintain the practice and prevent problems, but they don’t do much to prepare the practice for future challenges.  (I’ve discussed elsewhere that I think it is strange that making and managing the schedule is seen by many hospitalist group leaders as their most important job. While they are responsible for ensuring the group has an appropriate schedule, in many practices I think they should hand off the leg work of creating the schedule to others.) (more…)

John Nelson writes…

Daily encounters are a good metric for financial analyses, but I think they’re not so good when thinking about quality of care or hospitalist career longevity.

Most groups track the average number of encounters per hospitalist each day (or rounding) shift.  And everyone wants to know what it the right or SHM recommended average number of daily encounters.  When does an increasing average encounter volume begin to impair quality of care?  (more…)