Hospitalist Leadership

Hospitalist nonphysician providers: Why it’s so controversial

Karen M. Cheung — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 05:00:59 +0000

Last month, I wrote an article for HealthLeaders Media, entitled, “Are Hospitalist Physician Assistants the Answer to Shortages?” based on a recent article by The Mayo Clinic, published in the January issue of Journal of Hospital Medicine. The Mayo Clinic Arizona announced the first PA program dedicated to hospital medicine, a 12-month program that Mayo [...]

What is an observation unit?

Elizabeth Jones — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 17:09:08 +0000

Perhaps the greatest point of contention regarding observation status has to do with its definition. Is observation ascribed to the patient’s length of stay or to his or her clinical status? The best available evidence points to observation as an appropriate level of care for patients whose disease status is evolving, and therefore, may either [...]

Health reform—Now what?

Richard Rohr, MD, MMM, FACP, FHM — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 06:00:38 +0000

By Richard Rohr, MD, MMM, FACP, FHM A couple months ago, I wrote about health reform and predicted that it would fail to provide universal coverage and that hospitalists would not see much benefit from it. My predictions were technically correct, but I had not expected the entire effort to fizzle. The problem was that the [...]

Bending the cost curve: Who gets what?

Jonathan Lovins, MD, SFHM — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 11:00:30 +0000

By Jonathan Lovins, MD, SFHM Because hospitalists are the medical team leaders for episodes of acute care, their decisions help determine how much is spent and on what services. The elimination of consult codes by CMS in January was a shot across the bow at utilization, and some would argue that it was an attempt to [...]

Hospitalist can help reduce the nation’s spiraling healthcare costs

Jonathan Lovins, MD, SFHM — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:00:02 +0000

By Jonathan Lovins, MD, SFHM Expanding access to care is critical but will actually make escalating costs worse if we don’t bend the cost curve, as we’re seeing in Massachusetts now. The Massachusetts healthcare reform enacted in 2006 mandates almost every resident to have health insurance, and gives free care to those making less than 150% of the federal [...]

Abide by copyright laws when creating presentations

Elizabeth Jones — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 11:00:39 +0000

‘Tis the season for symposiums and conferences. When designing presentations, whether for a committee of four or a crowd of 400, keep in mind that most images and content on the Internet are copyrighted, even if the Web site hosting the images doesn’t explicitly say so. You shouldn’t copy and paste an image or content [...]

Get ready to ride the wave: Hospitalist practice will transform in the next 5 years

Jonathan Lovins, MD, SFHM — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 11:00:20 +0000

By Jonathan Lovins, MD, SFHM Spiraling health care costs, advances in bio- and information technology, and the political will to initiate substantial healthcare reform are causing the tectonic plates that make up the healthcare system to shift. As a result, waves of change are approaching our shores. Below are five of the biggest waves: The cost curve [...]

Hospitalists in Haiti

Elizabeth Jones — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 20:03:09 +0000

Tales from the earthquake in Haiti shook us all. For many of us, all we could do was donate money. But many hospitalists put their home lives and practices aside and went down there to help the victims. I came across this blog from one of those generous individuals who, in addition to running a clinic in [...]

Welcome Jonathan Lovins, MD, SFHM

Elizabeth Jones — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:34:12 +0000

Dear Readers, I’d like to take a moment to welcome a new HospitalistLeadership.com featured blogger. Jonathan Lovins, MD, SFHM, is a hospitalist and assistant clinical professor of medicine at Duke University Health System in Durham, NC. One of the 500 inaugural Society of Hospital Medicine fellows (2009) and select inaugural senior fellows (2010), he has been involved [...]

NPs filling in for PCPs in rural areas—What does it mean for hospitalist-PCP communication?

Elizabeth Jones — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 19:04:46 +0000

It’s a funny thing—if you ask me what I ate for breakfast this morning, I couldn’t tell you. But if you ask me if I’ve ever written an article about OB hospitalists, I can tell you in what issue the article appeared and who I interviewed. I can also recall whether I was in the [...]