“It’s not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent,” Dr. Afsar said. “But the ones who are most adaptable to change. While there’s debate on the Internet about who originally said this, there’s absolutely no debate that the theme in life and in health care is adaptability in the face of constant change.”
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Dr. Christopher Frost
In his own address at the Annual Conference of the Society of Hospital Medicine, Christopher Frost, MD, SFHM, the president-elect of SHM and national medical director of hospital-based services for LifePoint Health in Brentwood, Tenn., echoed Dr. Afsar’s theme of action in the context of change.
A key word, he said, is “multifarious” – the health care industry changes and the ways hospitalists are tackling these changes come in many and various types.
“We will not just react to – but actually help author – aspects of this change,” he said, including the continued move from fee for service to value-based and risk-based models of payment, and how to put new insights into disease processes to use and how they’re linked to social factors.
Increasing the diversity of hospitalist teams, maximizing the use of technology, and improving LGBTQ care are all themes of change being addressed at the meeting, he noted.
“When we summit one mountain of our own professional Alps,” Dr. Frost said, “and we see another on the horizon, we say, ‘Let’s climb that one. Let’s go there.’ ”
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