Practical changes for improving practice management

An all-day HM18 pre-course – “Hospitalist Practice Management: How to Thrive in a Time of Intense Change” – for hospitalist leaders and practice administrators was all about practicality.

One of the goals of the session was to provide “quick, actionable interventions that attendees can implement right away, as well as alternatives for attendees to consider, which will require some work to employ,” said John Nelson, MD, MHM, a partner at Nelson Flores Hospital Medicine Consultants, La Quinta, Calif., the medical director of the Overlake Medical Center, Bellevue, Wash., and a course codirector and a faculty presenter.

Session speakers addressed strategies to help position a hospitalist group for success, “which we define as having happy physicians and other providers, good metrics performance, and good financial performance,” Dr. Nelson, a cofounder and past president of SHM, said in an interview before the pre-course.

Dr. Nelson pointed out that the hospitalist practice is a unique practice model. “We can’t effectively use the same approaches that other medical specialties use to ensure we have successful practices,” he said.

The pre-course, held Sunday before the official start of HM18, included more commentary and specifics than in past years about how to prosper in the rapidly changing health care landscape and how to reduce the chance of burnout.

“Our goal is to help hospitalist groups put the right operational framework and infrastructure into place so they can be successful in taking care of patients and deliver value to institutions where they work,” Leslie Flores, MHA, SFHM, a partner at Nelson Flores Hospital Medicine Consultants, who was the course codirector, said in an interview before the session.

Topics addressed included how to find, measure, and demonstrate value; how to incorporate different types of providers and clinical support staffing into a practice to support hospitalists; and how to recruit the right people and build a desirable culture.

 

The pre-course also covered effective roles for a variety of providers in a hospitalist group, including nurses, scribes, and coordinators, and delineated the benefits of providing telemedicine.

For group leaders and administrators in attendance, the session also shed light on how to interact with individual providers in their group and how to collaborate to build a healthy culture and practice, Ms. Flores said.

The day began with presentations that laid out valuable information and frameworks, including “A Tour of Survey Data: What It Does and Doesn’t Tell You” and “Defining and Measuring Value.” Sessions included six didactic lectures with a question-and-answer period, as well as what Dr. Nelson has dubbed “point/counterpoint” sessions in which faculty members debated particular issues, such as work scheduling models. During the last session, “Learning From Each Other,” participants shared with other attendees their own best practices in the areas covered.

Although there is no single best way to organize a hospitalist’s practice, the course provided lots of information and perspective to help listeners decide what is best for their practice.

“Even though we work in a stressful environment of constant change, hospitalists do have some control over their destiny, and there are things they can do to make hospitalist groups thrive in this challenging environment,” Ms. Flores concluded.

An all-day HM18 pre-course – “Hospitalist Practice Management: How to Thrive in a Time of Intense Change” – for hospitalist leaders and practice administrators was all about practicality.

One of the goals of the session was to provide “quick, actionable interventions that attendees can implement right away, as well as alternatives for attendees to consider, which will require some work to employ,” said John Nelson, MD, MHM, a partner at Nelson Flores Hospital Medicine Consultants, La Quinta, Calif., the medical director of the Overlake Medical Center, Bellevue, Wash., and a course codirector and a faculty presenter.

Session speakers addressed strategies to help position a hospitalist group for success, “which we define as having happy physicians and other providers, good metrics performance, and good financial performance,” Dr. Nelson, a cofounder and past president of SHM, said in an interview before the pre-course.

Dr. Nelson pointed out that the hospitalist practice is a unique practice model. “We can’t effectively use the same approaches that other medical specialties use to ensure we have successful practices,” he said.

The pre-course, held Sunday before the official start of HM18, included more commentary and specifics than in past years about how to prosper in the rapidly changing health care landscape and how to reduce the chance of burnout.

“Our goal is to help hospitalist groups put the right operational framework and infrastructure into place so they can be successful in taking care of patients and deliver value to institutions where they work,” Leslie Flores, MHA, SFHM, a partner at Nelson Flores Hospital Medicine Consultants, who was the course codirector, said in an interview before the session.

Topics addressed included how to find, measure, and demonstrate value; how to incorporate different types of providers and clinical support staffing into a practice to support hospitalists; and how to recruit the right people and build a desirable culture.

 

The pre-course also covered effective roles for a variety of providers in a hospitalist group, including nurses, scribes, and coordinators, and delineated the benefits of providing telemedicine.

For group leaders and administrators in attendance, the session also shed light on how to interact with individual providers in their group and how to collaborate to build a healthy culture and practice, Ms. Flores said.

The day began with presentations that laid out valuable information and frameworks, including “A Tour of Survey Data: What It Does and Doesn’t Tell You” and “Defining and Measuring Value.” Sessions included six didactic lectures with a question-and-answer period, as well as what Dr. Nelson has dubbed “point/counterpoint” sessions in which faculty members debated particular issues, such as work scheduling models. During the last session, “Learning From Each Other,” participants shared with other attendees their own best practices in the areas covered.

Although there is no single best way to organize a hospitalist’s practice, the course provided lots of information and perspective to help listeners decide what is best for their practice.

“Even though we work in a stressful environment of constant change, hospitalists do have some control over their destiny, and there are things they can do to make hospitalist groups thrive in this challenging environment,” Ms. Flores concluded.

An all-day HM18 pre-course – “Hospitalist Practice Management: How to Thrive in a Time of Intense Change” – for hospitalist leaders and practice administrators was all about practicality.

One of the goals of the session was to provide “quick, actionable interventions that attendees can implement right away, as well as alternatives for attendees to consider, which will require some work to employ,” said John Nelson, MD, MHM, a partner at Nelson Flores Hospital Medicine Consultants, La Quinta, Calif., the medical director of the Overlake Medical Center, Bellevue, Wash., and a course codirector and a faculty presenter.

Session speakers addressed strategies to help position a hospitalist group for success, “which we define as having happy physicians and other providers, good metrics performance, and good financial performance,” Dr. Nelson, a cofounder and past president of SHM, said in an interview before the pre-course.

Dr. Nelson pointed out that the hospitalist practice is a unique practice model. “We can’t effectively use the same approaches that other medical specialties use to ensure we have successful practices,” he said.

The pre-course, held Sunday before the official start of HM18, included more commentary and specifics than in past years about how to prosper in the rapidly changing health care landscape and how to reduce the chance of burnout.

“Our goal is to help hospitalist groups put the right operational framework and infrastructure into place so they can be successful in taking care of patients and deliver value to institutions where they work,” Leslie Flores, MHA, SFHM, a partner at Nelson Flores Hospital Medicine Consultants, who was the course codirector, said in an interview before the session.

Topics addressed included how to find, measure, and demonstrate value; how to incorporate different types of providers and clinical support staffing into a practice to support hospitalists; and how to recruit the right people and build a desirable culture.

 

The pre-course also covered effective roles for a variety of providers in a hospitalist group, including nurses, scribes, and coordinators, and delineated the benefits of providing telemedicine.

For group leaders and administrators in attendance, the session also shed light on how to interact with individual providers in their group and how to collaborate to build a healthy culture and practice, Ms. Flores said.

The day began with presentations that laid out valuable information and frameworks, including “A Tour of Survey Data: What It Does and Doesn’t Tell You” and “Defining and Measuring Value.” Sessions included six didactic lectures with a question-and-answer period, as well as what Dr. Nelson has dubbed “point/counterpoint” sessions in which faculty members debated particular issues, such as work scheduling models. During the last session, “Learning From Each Other,” participants shared with other attendees their own best practices in the areas covered.

Although there is no single best way to organize a hospitalist’s practice, the course provided lots of information and perspective to help listeners decide what is best for their practice.

“Even though we work in a stressful environment of constant change, hospitalists do have some control over their destiny, and there are things they can do to make hospitalist groups thrive in this challenging environment,” Ms. Flores concluded.