Rob Bessler writes…

Most hospitalists focus on three main areas when they describe the value they bring. Quality, efficiency and satisfaction. In a consumer driven healthcare environment we all focus on measuring and improving the satisfaction of those we serve. At the center of course is the patient. The HCAHPS survey is a standardized set of questions used across the country that allows hospitals to compare themselves against a similar benchmark.  The most recent bulletin is troubling to say the least. (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…)

Robert Chang writes…

Ground level work
Taking a break from my prior themes, I just returned from Honduras where I act as clinic director, triage, medical student instructor, pre-operative clinic, coordinator for medical consulting with physicians back home for obscure cases and whatever else needed to be done to keep our one week of general medicine/ENT clinic and surgeries going smoothly.  The week away was refreshing, whether it was the little kids, the cyst-that-was-actually-a-botfly that we removed from someone’s head, or mentoring students (one of whom was featured in the local paper). (more…)