Northern Nevada
The Northern Nevada chapter met April 7 at the Charlie Palmer Steakhouse in Reno. The 36 attendees represented five HM groups. The meeting topic was “Difficult Decisions in Anticoagulation,” with guest speaker Christine Tankersley, PharmD, from Sanofi-Aventis Pharmaceuticals.
The chapter provided Tankersley with several real-patient cases that involved challenging decisions, and she led a step-wise discussion within the context of new American College of Clinial Pharmacy guidelines for anticoagulation.
Chapter President Phil Goodman, MD, FHM, stressed the importance of joining SHM and attending the annual meeting. It was decided to continue the community SHM journal club, which enjoyed a successful debut in September 2008, with 15 attendees reviewing a pair of New England Journal of Medicine articles at P.F. Chang’s in Reno.
Annual chapter elections were planned for the next meeting.
Long Island
The March 19 meeting provided SHM updates on the national meeting, advancement to fellowship opportunities, and a call to encourage HM group leaders to promote SHM membership.
A presentation on antibiotic stewardship revealed data on the improved clinical and economical outcomes of such a program in the hospital setting.
Connecticut
Joseph Ming-Wah Li, MD, FHM, director of the hospital medicine program at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and an SHM board member, spoke at the March 25 chapter meeting. He discussed the exponential growth of HM as a specialty and reviewed data on hospitalist numbers past, present, and future.
Dr. Li also analyzed data from SHM’s 2007-2008 “Bi-Annual Survey on the State of Hospital Medicine,” and provided benchmarks for hospitalist productivity, night scheduling, administrative work, use of physician extenders, and residents.
Dr. Li’s talk was followed by a presentation on billing-capture software by Courtney Shickel from Ingenious Med Company. The demonstration touted the benefits of using the software for charge capture and some quality measures. The data showed the software can increase hospital revenues within 30 to 60 days of implementation, and lost charges were almost completely mitigated.
Upstate South Carolina
The March 19 meeting brought together nearly 20 attendees representing five hospitals in upstate South Carolina. Bruce Friedman, MD, of Doctor’s Hospital presented information on doripenem (Doribax).
Following the presentation, chapter President Imran Shaikh, MD, a hospitalist with Inpatient Medicine Service, directed the business meeting. Members discussed development of a chapter newsletter as well as an online forum to allow discussion of clinical and administrative issues.
Sanjeev Kumar, MD, a hospitalist with Hospital Medicine Consultants, will query members as to which portal would be most accessible to members, then proceed with establishing the forum.
Georgia Coastal
The April 16 chapter meeting featured SHM board member and president-elect Jeff Wiese, MD, FHM, speaking on the direction of HM and the progress of a board certification in hospital medicine.
This meeting was well attended by SHM members, including physician assistants and nurse practitioners.