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Add Mentoring to Your Hospitalist Mix

Meet the Mentors

A mentor should be well versed in organizational processes, have clinical expertise and—if not an experienced teacher—should have well-honed people skills.

“Our mentors come from a profile of different folks, including the founding group of Cogent, a large practice in Los Angeles comprised of experienced hospitalists,” explains Dr. Holman. “Another group of mentors is our entire slate of medical directors, who have individual expertise in different areas. When mentors go on site visits, there’s no direct reporting, but they bring their expertise and facilitate networking.”

Cogent continues to widen its pool of available mentors, and is working to include physicians with special expertise. “We’re trying to build a diverse team [of mentors],” says Dr. Holman. “We look for clinical expertise in physicians who may not necessarily hold leadership roles. We try to predetermine which available mentor we think will be the best fit for a program, including personality, culture, and expertise.”

You Can Introduce Mentoring

You many not have the resources or number of physicians that Cogent has, but you can still start your own mentoring program. “Any program can look at a variety of resources to build a stable of mentors, or at least have a couple of mentors they can draw on,” insists Dr. Holman. “Look at other members of the medical staff that are experienced and role models for desirable qualities. Mentors can be within the healthcare field, but they don’t have to be physicians. One of my personal mentors for years was a director of human resources. You can even look outside healthcare.

“SHM is constantly looking at how to facilitate mentorship through venues like the Mentorship Breakfast at the Annual Meeting, and I still keep in touch with people I’ve met there,” he continues. “The SHM Annual Meeting is a terrific venue in general if you’re looking to connect members of your group (or yourself) with others from around the country.”

Implementing and maintaining a mentoring program may add to your workload, but it will pay off immediately. Just remember not to plan it out too carefully. “Mentoring is a constant work in progress,” concludes Dr. Holman. “We never want to see it as a static or inflexible entity. It’s a dynamic process driven by physician needs.” TH

Jane Jerrard writes “Career Development” each month for The Hospitalist

Hospitalists Make Better Teachers

A study in the September 2004 Archives of Internal Medicine reported that hospitalists who train students do a better job than traditional attending physicians. In staff and student evaluations at two teaching hospitals, students reported more effective teaching from hospitalists, as well as more satisfying inpatient rotations when supervised by hospitalists. This analysis suggests that hospitalists may possess or accrue a specific inpatient knowledge base and teaching skill that distinguishes them from other physicians.

How’s Your Staffing?

SHM provides some general advice for hospital medicine groups to estimate how many full-time equivalent physicians (FTEs) they need:

  1. What does the practice want to accomplish? Does it want to provide 24-hour coverage, 365 days a year? Or does it just plan to cover days? Or nights? Or weekends and holidays?
  2. How well do you know your community? Know your referral sources and your competition? Who else sees hospitalized patients at your hospital? How are emergency department admissions handled?
  3. Will the hospitalists have duties other than seeing patients, such as teaching, taking outpatient rotations, or doing hospital administration?
  4. What seasonal issues in your community affect demand for hospitals?
  5. What are your scheduling preferences?
  6. How will salaries be determined? If not simply by the individual’s billings, how much are you willing to pay, including benefits?

Find more information on www.hospitalmedicine.org under “Resource Center,” then “Practice Resources.”

Beam Me Up, Scotty

The Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro, Great Britain, is testing a new communications system that could eventually replace pagers, walkie-talkies, and mobile phones. Hospital workers are wearing tiny, voice-activated badges that allow instant communication between staff by simply speaking a person’s name or department.

The BT Managed Vocera system is specifically designed for environments where key staff need to be contacted urgently and are often away from desk phones.

The Salary Wizard Speaks

According to the online “Salary Wizard” at http://swz.salary.com, the median expected salary for a typical hospitalist in the United States is $157,317. Compare this with SHM findings on p. 19.

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