“This is the best meeting I’ve ever been to,” Dr. Ringswald says. “If you can’t find a lecture [that appeals to you], there’s something wrong with you.”
Renewed Focus
In the annual meeting’s wrap-up address, Michael Pistoria, DO, FACP, SFHM, hospitalist at Lehigh Valley Health Network in Allentown, Pa., described the future of practice management as an amalgam of all the issues HM faces. Improved communication, a renewed focus on costs and high-value care, and continued adoption of best practices found at institutions across the country are all ways to better operate individual practices.
“We move ahead by doing what we do best in hospital medicine,” says Dr. Pistoria, the course director for HM13, which will be May 16-19, 2013, just outside of Washington, D.C. “We get together as teams, we collaborate with each other across our institutions, within our own institution, and professionally. We come up with that one small or big idea that improves care at the level of the patient and at the macro level.”
CMS’ CMO Offers Practice-Management Tips
Patrick Conway, MD, MSc, FAAP, SFHM, a pediatric hospitalist and chief medical officer of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), has advice for hospitalists looking to better manage their practice:
- Understand your hospital’s data. What is collected? What is analyzed? Where are the gaps in that research? What does it all mean for you?
- Take leadership roles. Lead multidisciplinary teams, teach others around you, become known for a focus on evidence-based approaches.
- Familiarize yourself with resources. CMS, SHM, and myriad other medical organizations and private agencies offer free or low-cost resources. When looking to solve problems, it’s possible someone already has done so.
- Create collaborative forums. Physicians feel engaged when they believe they can voice opinions in an accepting environment. The reverse is also true.
- Stay connected to clinical care, even if it’s just occasional shifts to help out.
“My challenge to you is please don’t sit on the sidelines,” Dr. Conway says. “Please be actively engaged in your local system in creating this change. This is not for me or CMS, but stating the obvious: It’s why we went into medicine.”