As the format for SQUINT will replicate the structure of ABIM’s Practice Improvement Module format, it will provide the added service of empowering hospitalists engaged in Maintenance of Certification (MOC) in Focused Practice in Hospital Medicine. And vice versa, it will enable all who have completed ABIM PIMs to post their QI projects on SQUINT, further leveraging the size and depth of the SQUINT database.
Education
October 2010 marked the first MOC examination with the Focused Practice in Hospital Medicine designation. I am pleased that SHM has not yielded in its efforts to ensure that MOC in HM is not just a piece of paper, but also a tangible process that leverages improved performance on the part of the hospitalist. To assist hospitalists in meeting these requirements, SHM has worked on three medical knowledge modules this year, one that already qualifies for MOC credit and two more expected to be available by this time next year.
The consistent quality of SHM’s educational programming has continued throughout the year. Undoubtedly, many of you will be reading this en route to another exceptional annual meeting in Dallas. Though you will not see this at HM11, the foundation plan for a completely electronic meeting, enabling real-time dialogue between speakers and audience members (via smartphones, etc.), has been set in motion. The fully electronic annual meeting is not far away.
Advocacy
Heading into this past year, the board made the decision to double the resources for the advocacy cluster. SHM has become a major voice in the conversation of healthcare reform, and the advocacy leadership of the organization has been invited to weigh in on all components of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
From bundling to ACOs, from value-based purchasing to readmissions, I am proud of the message espoused by SHM’s advocacy leadership (www.hospital medicine.org/advocacy). Proud, because the modus operandi that has gained us great credibility among legislators has continued: a message that advocates for the needs of the hospitalist but never at the expense of what is best for the patient.
Of all of the decisions made in the past year, there is none wiser than to have invested in our advocacy infrastructure. The conversation in which we are now involved transcends what is best for the hospitalist—it is a conversation about changing a decades-old healthcare system to something better. And the complexities of this conversation require erudite and wise thought leaders, people who care about the right things.
Going forward, the road will be no less challenging. Walking the line of preserving our specialty while doing what is best for the patient must remain our priority.
A year ago today, I set forth 10 goals:
- Ensure a solid leadership base for the years to come;
- Move the organization to an even higher level of integrity and transparency;
- Augment the “pipeline” of the profession, ensuring that those who come next will be better prepared than we were;
- Augment the infrastructure to advance diversity within the organization;
- Ensure that the philosophy of the “big tent” vision is sustained;
- Ensure that our advocacy efforts are about doing the right thing: providing the safest and highest-quality care for all patients;
- Establish relationships with other organizations;
- Establish an infrastructure that enables all hospitalists to participate in quality and patient-safety initiatives;
- Further establish HM as its own specialty, a specialty known for being the vanguard of quality and patient safety; and
- Ensure that the leaders of the organization who follow me inherit an organization that is better than when I found it.
Only time will tell whether I was successful in meeting these goals, but to the extent we succeeded, I give full credit to the SHM staff, leadership, and member volunteers who made it happen. To the extent that we fell short, I take full responsibility.