SHM’s annual meeting offers something new each year. For HM14, a timely new track dubbed “Bending the Cost Curve” will focus on hospitalists’ role in improving cost effectiveness for the healthcare system as a whole.
“The value equation has always been something that’s near and dear to us,” says HM14 course director Daniel Brotman, MD, SFHM. “What’s different now is that cost shifting to the outpatient setting is something that is now being recognized as a potential unintended consequence of rushing through hospitalizations. And as we’re moving into the accountable-care world, making sure that the cost shifting does not occur…is really important.
“That means that hospitalists need to own the care transition.”
“ The educational component particularly the practice management track—is increasingly important in this era of rapid change. I don’t think any hospitalist anywhere in the country can afford to put his or her head in the sand and pretend it’s business as usual. ”
–Leslie Flores, MHA, a partner in Nelson Flores Hospital Medicine Consultants, a member of SHM’s Practice Analysis Committee, and co-director for the practice management pre-course
The debut offerings don’t stop there. Three new pre-courses are on this year’s agenda: “Cardiology: What Hospitalists Need to Know as Front-Line Providers,” “Efficient High-Value Evidence-Based Medicine for the Practicing Hospitalist,” and “NP/PA Playbook for Hospital Medicine.”
“As a pre-course director, I think the educational aspect is what sets the tone for the whole meeting,” says Leslie Flores, MHA, a partner in Nelson Flores Hospital Medicine Consultants, a member of SHM’s Practice Analysis Committee, and co-director for the practice management pre-course, “Where the Rubber Meets the Road: Managing in the Era of Healthcare Reform. “People come looking to improve their clinical skills and their hospitalist groups.”
Pre-courses are critical to the meeting’s educational offerings. In that vein, HM14 is keeping pace with generational reform in care delivery and payment methodologies.
“The educational component—particularly the practice management track—is increasingly important in this era of rapid change,” Flores adds. “I don’t think any hospitalist anywhere in the country can afford to put his or her head in the sand and pretend it’s business as usual.”
To that end, another new feature at HM14 is a panel discussion titled, “Obamacare Is Here: What Does It Mean for You and Your Hospital?” The participants are a who’s who of the specialty’s thought leaders: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services chief medical officer Patrick Conway, MD, MSc, FAAP, SFHM; executive director and CEO of the Medical University of South Carolina and former SHM president Patrick Cawley, MD, MHM, FACP; veteran healthcare executive Patrick Courneya, MD; and American Enterprise Institute resident fellow Scott Gottlieb, MD.
“The SHM annual meeting is pretty much the only place a hospitalist can go to learn about these changes,” Flores says, “and how to cope with them from a hospitalist’s perspective.”
Richard Quinn is a freelance writer in New Jersey.