“This new alliance will pay dividends for years to come,” says Leslie Flores, the director of SHM’s Practice Management Institute. “The information from our compensation and productivity surveys has always been valuable to hospitals. Having the MGMA name attached to next year’s product will only increase its significance and usefulness.”
Hospitalists will receive the joint survey questionnaire from SHM and MGMA in January.
Fellow in Hospital medicine Spotlight
Penny McDonald, MD, FACP, FHM
Dr. McDonald is a practicing hospitalist with Inpatient Physicians of Forsyth at Forsyth Memorial Hospital in Winston-Salem, N.C.
Undergraduate education: High Point University, High Point, N.C.
Medical school: East Carolina University School of Medicine, Greenville, N.C.
Notable: Dr. McDonald has been a practicing hospitalist since 1997 and an SHM member since 1999. She has served on the physician leadership board and ethics committee at Forsyth. She has been published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
FYI: Outside the hospital, Dr. McDonald is an avid hiker and loves to travel. Last year, she reached her own personal goal of visiting all 50 states. Her new goal is to visit every national park in the U.S.
Quotable: “I have a secret desire that our specialty be renamed. Describing us as ‘hospitalists,’ based on where we practice, doesn’t seem to cover it. I think ‘medical complexity specialist’ would be more fitting and would encompass all of what we do.”
For more information about the FHM program, visit www.hospitalmedicine.org/fellows.
HM Fellows
Three letters can mean a lot, especially for hospitalists looking for ways to demonstrate their commitment to the specialty. This year was the first in which qualified hospitalists could earn the Fellow in Hospital Medicine (FHM) designation. The first class of more than 500 FHM designees was introduced in an on-stage ceremony at HM09.
“This is a special way for SHM—and the healthcare industry as a whole—to recognize the unique achievements and dedication that hospital medicine requires,” says Todd Von Deak, MBA, CAE, SHM’s vice president for marketing and membership. “As the specialty grows in number and influence, so will the fellows program.”
In 2010, SHM will induct the first class of Senior Fellows in Hospital Medicine (SFHM). While the process for applying for the senior designation will be similar to the FHM designation, the SFHM will require additional years of practice and leadership in the specialty.
The fellows program also features the Master in Hospital Medicine (MHM) designation, the highest level of recognition available. The MHM will be available in 2011, and the nomination process will be invitation-only.
Outside Recognition
SHM isn’t the only group recognizing the impact hospitalists are making on healthcare. In September, the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) announced that hospitalists will be able to apply for Recognition of Focused Practice (RFP) in Hospital Medicine as part of ABIM’s maintenance of certification (MOC) program. The application process will be available as early as next month.
SHM will be assisting hospitalists in the application process through online resources and the MOC pre-course, which will be offered before HM10. Hospitalists with three years of experience in the field can apply for the RFP program. Although most physicians are required to recertify every 10 years, hospitalists won’t have to wait until their certification is up to apply for focused recognition. For more information about the RFP in HM program, visit www.abim.org.
Hospital-Provider Partners
Treating hospitalized patients has always been a team sport. From caseworkers and pharmacists to physicians and critical-care nurses, the diverse and specialized needs of hospital care demand collaboration and coordination.
That’s the idea behind the Hospital Care Collaborative (HCC), which convened for the first time in 2009. The group is made up of six national organizations that represent hundreds of thousands of care providers. The HCC has developed and published “Common Principles for Team-Based Healthcare.” The principles emphasize the need for teamwork within the hospital setting and a focus on the patient.