Public Policy

All Eyes on San Diego

SHM’s Annual Meeting highlights hospital medicine as a distinct field within internal medicine. Being able to, year after year, incorporate core clinical topics, evidence-based practice, quality-related content, and career development into three days is only possible because of the foundation laid from previous meetings over the past 10 years.

Expectations about the role of hospitalists have taken shape through recommendations from education summits and national experts on healthcare policy, and via publications like the Journal of Hospital Medicine and The Core Competencies in Hospital Medicine. The Annual Meeting Committee’s goal was to define a program that facilitates hospitalists in achieving that role.

San Diego skyline.

San Diego skyline.

The 2008 meeting April 3-5 in San Diego will feature:

  • National leaders in hospital medicine and healthcare;
  • Six precourses addressing timely and relevant topics; and
  • Seven tracks addressing clinical, operational, quality, academic, and pediatric issues.

Issues that have broad appeal and present challenges for hospitalists will be addressed in three widely anticipated keynotes:

Quality: Don Berwick, MD, MPP, FRCP, president and CEO, Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) and architect of both the 100,000 Lives and 5 Million Lives campaigns;

The future of healthcare: Ian Morrison, PhD, president emeritus and health advisory panel chair, Institute for the Future, and an internationally known author on long-term forecasting with particular emphasis on healthcare;

Thriving in the face of comanagement, non-teaching services, transparency, and the reality of perpetual change: Robert Wachter, MD, professor and chief of the division of hospital medicine, associate chairman of the department of medicine, University of California, San Francisco.

Chapter Summaries

Connecticut

The opening presentation of the Sept. 26 meeting was given by chapter President Rachel Lovins, MD, director of the hospitalist program at Waterbury Hospital. The chapter discussed the need for guest speakers during the meeting, the amount of time allotted to speakers, and possible locations. Particular attention was paid to having speakers come from different hospitals to discuss policy, decision-making, protocols, and pathways. Matthew Katz, executive director of the Connecticut State Medical Society, spoke about his organization and the increasing role hospitalists play in providing inpatient care.

Southern Louisiana

The charter meeting of the Southern Louisiana Chapter took place Aug. 25 in Lafayette. The speaker was Leo Seoane, MD, associate program director of the internal medicine residency program at Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans. Dr. Seoane spoke on methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) pneumonia in the inpatient setting. Later, the group discussed better cooperation between facilities during mass disasters, improved hospital-to-hospital transfers, and updates from the Joint Commission and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services affecting inpatient medicine. Attendees laid the framework for what the chapter’s goals would be and determined that meeting locations would rotate between Lafayette and Baton-Rouge. Officers will be elected at the next meeting.

Western Massachusetts

The chapter met Aug. 28 in Springfield. The featured speaker was William McGee, MD, Baystate Critical Care Medicine in Springfield. Dr. McGee gave a lecture on MRSA pneumonia. Representatives of five hospitalist groups attended.

San Diego

The San Diego chapter met Oct. 10. Alpesh Amin, MD, lead hospitalist and chief of general internal medicine at the University of California, Irvine, updated the group on quality measures for congestive heart failure and acute myocardial infarction. Hospitalists from five local groups attended.

The future of hospital medicine: opportunities and challenges: A special plenary session presented by a panel of hospital medicine leaders who will share perspectives from:

  • The large hospitalist company;
  • The large hospital company as an employer;
  • The hospital CEO; and
  • The individual hospital employed/associated hospital medicine group.
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