Teaching
Teaching skills can be applicable in any hospital environment, Dr. Holman adds. Hospitalists who work in nonteaching hospitals often serve as teachers to nursing staff, case management, pharmacists, discharge planners, and other ancillary staff in their daily interaction or over lunchtime educational programs. HM also can provide the bulk of a hospital’s grand rounds or other departmental educational sessions, he says.
“Let’s not forget about patients and caregivers,” Dr. Holman adds. “The ability to teach patients and caregivers the necessary information and skills that they need for self-care, for follow-up care, and for compliance to a medical plan is important.”
Professional Evaluation
A hospitalist has to know on which metrics and measurements their success will be based, Dr. Holman says. Will it be patient satisfaction, length of stay, readmission rates, mortality rates, or some other measure?
“We have to be aware of what the hospital’s needs are, what the hospital’s key points are that they look for,” Sotolongo says.
Once the metrics are clear, a hospitalist can set goals to accomplish individually, as a member of an HM group, and partner with the hospital, Dr. Holman says.
Lisa Ryan is a freelance writer based in New Jersey.