The rapidly expanding field of hospital medicine has spurred a growing number of textbooks devoted to the specialty. Textbooks by some of the specialty’s leading voices are available to those keen on honing their knowledge.
Ranging in scope from practice management issues to clinical synopses, titles include:
- “Hospitalists: A Guide to Building and Sustaining a Successful Program” by SHM founders John Nelson, MD, and Win Whitcomb, MD, and Joe Miller, SHM’s executive adviser to the CEO. (Health Administration Press, 2007, $72);
- “Comprehensive Hospital Medicine,” by Mark Williams, MD, chief, division of hospital medicine, Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago (Elsevier, 2007, $109);
- “Hospital Medicine Secrets,” by The Hospitalist physician editor Jeff Glasheen, MD (Mosby/Elsevier, 2007, $39);
- “Understanding Patient Safety” by Robert Wachter, MD, chief of the Division of Hospital Medicine, and chief of the Medical Service at the University of California, at San Francisco Medical Center, and author of “Wachter’s World,” a blog featured on The Hospitalist Web site (McGraw-Hill, 2007, $35);
- “Hospital Medicine: Just the Facts,” by Sylvia McKean, MD, director, hospitalist service, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston (McGraw-Hill, 2008, $50);
- “First Exposure. Internal Medicine: Hospital Medicine” by Charles Griffith, MD, inpatient internal medicine clerkship director, and Andrew R. Hoellein, MD, outpatient internal medicine clerkship director, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Kentucky, Lexington (McGraw-Hill, 2007, $34); and
- “Tools and Strategies for an Effective Hospitalist Program” by Jeffrey R. Dichter, MD, and Kenneth G. Simone, MD (HCPro, 2008, $299).
SHM’s offering in the arena reinforces the ideas of “the critical need for leadership of HMGs and the need to create an ownership mentality for hospitalists within an HMG,” Miller says. “The book is filled with examples, tools, and checklists” and has sold approximately 500 copies so far.
The newest text, just off the press in May, is Dr. McKean’s. “This book provides concise, templated information designed to save the clinician valuable time,” she says. It also has a variety of uses, including exam review, clinical reference, point-of-care lookup, [and] quick updates in hospital medicine for those attending on the wards. It covers vital information on issues in administration and management.”
Dr. Wachter wrote his text “because I didn’t see any book for those seeking to learn the key clinical, organizational, and systems issues in patient safety,” he says. “I tried to write it in a lively and accessible style and fill it with illustrative cases and analyses, as well as up-to-date tables, graphics, references, and tools. My goal was to introduce the patient safety field to physicians—particularly hospitalists—nurses, pharmacists, and hospital administrators, as well as to trainees in these fields. [I hope it’s a] go-to book for experienced clinicians and nonclinicians alike.”
Already in its second printing, Dr. Wachter estimates it has sold between 7,500 and 10,000 copies. He plans to update the book every two years and is working on producing some Web-based learning modules. TH