SHM is growing, changing, evolving and advancing. If you have been a member or been engaged with the society for the past few years, this isn’t news to you. Our membership is growing; the products, publications and services we offer are expanding; attendance at our annual meeting is increasing; and we are continuing to create new and valuable online resources. These are tangible signs of growth that many of you see and touch on a regular basis. On a day-to-day basis, I see the same things, but because I work for SHM, I have the opportunity to see the growth and change from within the organization.
When I signed on with SHM more than three years ago, I walked through the door and into a small office, approximately 3,000 square feet in size with about 13 full-time staff members. Since then, we have grown steadily, consistently adding new faces to the SHM team and expanding into new places by breaking through a wall into an adjacent space. Flash forward to the present day. Between April and July 2008, SHM has added 13 new faces to the staff. At the end of September 2008, we broke ground on construction of our new corporate headquarters, a 16,000-square-foot office in downtown Philadelphia.
Since its inception 12 years ago, SHM has called 190 Independence Mall home, but just as the hospital medicine movement has grown, so has SHM and the staff supporting the society. This winter, SHM will be moving our corporate headquarters to the new facility at 1500 Spring Garden. The process to find our new headquarters has been an extensive one. We began the search for a new office approximately one year ago, and as I am writing this, final construction documents have been sent to a list of general contractors.
During the past six months, SHM has been working with projects managers, architects, engineers, and consultants to take our new office from a “blank slate” to a finished and fully operational office before the end of 2008. As you read this article, construction on the new headquarters is fully underway. Workers are putting up drywall, running cables, laying carpet, and installing equipment that will be the supporting foundation for the staff and society for the next decade.
So, by now you are probably asking, “What does this mean to me? I don’t see these people on a daily basis, and I don’t work at SHM headquarters.” At a very basic level it means SHM will have a new address and new phone numbers. Your letters, applications, registrations, and anything addressed to SHM will be routed to our new home. Additionally, as part of our move, SHM will implement a new phone system. Our toll-free, 1-800 number will remain the same, however, all of the people who work for SHM will have new office phone numbers.
It is important you know how to reach SHM in our new home, but even more important is to know that this move is a significant milestone in the evolution of the society and the next step in providing you, our members, with ever-improving and enhanced levels of service and support. In creating a new facility, we are further equipping staff with the tools they need to serve you, creating technical capacities to meet current and future needs, and setting a stage for SHM’s continued growth in support of the growing hospital medicine movement.
During the weeks and months ahead, the SHM team will be preparing for the launch of the new One Day Hospitalist University, opening of the new Fellowship in Hospital Medicine and[Add Another New Program Here. In addition to all of these new and exciting initiatives, we will be organizing files, packing boxes and preparing for our move. As we transition to new desks, new phones, new commutes and a new environment, we would like to take a moment to thank you for your support and understanding while we take another significant step in the history of the Society of Hospital Medicine.