Q: What’s the biggest change you’ve seen in HM in your career?
A: Where to start? HM used to be a “thing,” requiring a lot of explanation. Now we have a peer-reviewed journal, and some of the best internists and family physicians in the U.S. choose hospital medicine as a career. Patients are more accepting.
Q: What’s the biggest change you would like to see in HM?
A: This may sound odd, but I would like compensation to stabilize. It will happen, but the continuous upward climb, while benefitting physicians on one hand, also serves to destabilize programs and create difficult financial situations for hospitals, particularly smaller hospitals that are at risk of closing nowadays.
Q: As a leader, why is it important for you to continue seeing patients?
A: I think that being able to see things from a variety of perspectives is very important.
Q: As a hospitalist, seeing most of your patients for the very first time, what aspect of patient care is most challenging?
A: Time management on a hospitalist’s first day is a challenge, as it always takes more time to really understand a patient and their course. Patients generally don’t like being asked the same questions repetitively.
Q: What aspect of patient care is most rewarding?
A: The human connection and feeling that you’ve played an important part in a patient’s and their family’s lives.
Q: What is your biggest professional challenge?
A: The very rapid pace of change when working with several hospitals and systems that each have their own set of strengths and challenges.
Q: What is your biggest professional reward?
A: Feeling like a part of something really meaningful. I am proud of being a leader in my organization, and I have never felt that way in any other job.
Q: What did it mean to you to be elected a Senior Fellow in Hospital Medicine?
A: I was elected SFHM in the first cohort, and I was not sure what to make of it. It has become something that is more meaningful over time as it is more widely recognized.
Q: What’s next professionally?
A: Transitional care. We are working hard to improve care in the post-acute period. The variability there is incredible, and where there is variability, there is waste. Making it work as a business, though, is another matter.
Q: If you weren’t a doctor, what would you be doing right now?
A: Probably either in information technology in some fashion—I built my first PC back when the 386 processor was king—or in music. I’ve played drums for a long time and still do whenever I get the chance.
Q: When you aren’t working, what is important to you?
A: Given that I travel quite a bit, I like to spend time with my family. We live in Bend, Ore., which offers great outdoor activities like mountain biking and skiing. We like to stay active as a family.
Q: What’s the best book you’ve read recently?
A: Being Mortal by Atul Gawande.