Rusty Holman writes…

My blogging colleagues have made several recent comments that triggered a train of thought about the nature of people in organizations. Comments like “topics that affect the majority of us in our daily practice,” “sustainable and attractive careers for ourselves” and “what’s going on with hospitalist turnover” began to weave together the topics of hiring physicians, retaining them, and the inevitability of some departures. (more…)

Rob Bessler writes…

The New Year is upon us. Hospital medicine’s busiest time of year. There is no better time than now to do some needed housekeeping for your practice site. It is our belief at Sound that there is nothing more important that the quality of the team that we develop and support.  The team and all the clichés that go with that power are real. No individual is as strong in isolation as when powered by the collective support of the team.  These teams can then become the lifeblood of the hospital and the community they serve. Where strong teams exist, turn over is extraordinarily low and when it does occur the team keeps ugrading the talent. This cycle feeds on itself. (more…)

Robert Chang, MD writes…

A blank slate to write for a national hospitalist blog is slightly intimidating, but perhaps from a different sense than one might expect.  Hospitalists are an extremely heterogeneous group, originally brought together by manpower necessity, serendipity as well as hard work.   Looking at the cards I get everyday for hospitalist recruitment, offers still range from academic positions in institution A, opportunities for provision of rural care in Remote area B, to competitive private group X in Fantastic location Y.  Writing on topics that affect the majority of us in our daily practice, in all its truly remarkable diversity, is not simple. (more…)

Leslie Flores writes…

When you ask hospitalist physician leaders or practice administrators about their most pressing challenges and concerns, physician recruitment and retention are always high on the list.  You have a heck of a time finding a hospitalist to join your practice, and the minute you do one of your existing hospitalists decides to leave – so you are always playing catch-up.  In fact the Phoenix Group, a think tank comprised of representatives from many of the nation’s largest private hospital medicine groups, recently identified the hospitalist workforce shortage as the single most urgent issue demanding the specialty’s attention (see the Phoenix Group’s white paper “Confronting the Hospitalist Workforce Shortage”). (more…)

John Nelson writes…

I live in the Seattle area and lately have been reminded of an often repeated story that happened here.  In 1971 the local economy, then very dependent on Boeing, fell on hard times and people were leaving the area and housing prices were falling dramatically.  Two realtors put up a billboard saying “Will the Last Person Leaving SEATTLE — Turn Out the Lights.”

It won’t surprise me if a similar sign appears in hospitals around the US.  “Traditionalists,” which I’ll define as doctors with an active outpatient and inpatient practice in the traditional model of the last century, are leaving in droves. (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…)