IT Forum participants agreed SHM can educate non-IT-savvy physicians, letting them know the technology is there to help and that new systems rarely come off the shelf without a glitch. Training and software improvements will help alleviate those pressures, Dr. Rogers says. Interactive discussion networks should stimulate evaluation of systems used in HM, allowing peer groups to help each other discover the right fit for their groups.
—Richard Quinn
Value and Competition
“Subsidy” as a dirty word and increased competition from specialists were just a couple of the weighty topics discussed at the Community-Based Hospitalist Forum at HM09 in Chicago.
John Nelson, MD, FHM, FACP, a principal in national hospitalist practice management consulting firm Nelson/Flores Associates and a columnist for The Hospitalist, and Winthrop F. Whitcomb, MD, FHM, a hospitalist at Mercy Medical Center in Springfield, Mass., led a group discussion about issues affecting their groups. Dr. Nelson asked hospitalists if they were dealing with competition from specialists. “Years ago, it was just us,” he said. “No one ever presented the case that their specialty deserved or required special support from the hospital. Now, essentially they all do.”
Jesse Wagner, MD, FHM, a hospitalist at Middlesex Hospital, a 275-bed facility in Middletown, Conn., said hospital administrators need to understand the value of the subsidies they provide HM groups. “I hate the term ‘subsidy.’ It’s not a subsidy because of the value,” Dr. Wagner said. “When I present my administrators with our budget every year, part of the value I present is they don’t have to pay for call for medicine at all because we’re there, we’ll do it. … The hospital’s bottom line is clearly better for having a hospitalist program.” TH
—Stephanie Cajigal