The Life of a Task Force

The Hospitalist. 2007 October;2007(10):

October 1, 2007 | The Hospitalist

Finally, Dr. Torcson hopes to shape and disseminate a national research agenda for hospitalist performance measurement and reporting. TH

Hospital Medicine Fast Facts

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SHM Behind the Scenes

Quality is our Middle Name

By Geri Barnes

The Education and Quality Initiatives Department’s (EQID) mission is to lead and manage an integrative program that brings resources to improve patient care. With the help of many individuals and partner organizations, SHM is working toward improved care for inpatients. Let’s review our progress as we begin the second quarter of SHM’s fiscal year.

Educational Programs

Our focus over the past few months has been the development of “Hospital Medicine 2008,” which will be held April 3-5 in San Diego. Under the leadership of Sylvia McKean, MD, head of the hospitalist service at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston, the Annual Meeting Committee has developed an innovative program. The session will include a new evidence-based rapid fire track and a new teaching skills pre-course for academic and clinical educators. EQID obtains CMEs, communicates with faculty, and fine-tunes logistical efforts.

Leadership Academy Level I is a mainstay of SHM’s educational efforts. EQID supports Eric Howell, MD, chair of the Leadership Committee, as it focuses on addressing attendee input and encouraging the revision of the program in a continuous quality improvement effort. Dr. Howell is director of the Collaborative Inpatient Medicine Service and director of the Zieve Medical Services for Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore.

Along with Level I, Leadership Academy Level II will be presented again this year Nov. 5-8 in San Antonio. It builds on the success of last fall’s first offering by expanding on the concepts presented in the Level I academy.

A new educational initiative, supported by Sanofi-Aventis, provides three training sessions at regional chapters or other designated meetings across the country. The meetings educate hospitalists on best practices for glycemic control, prevention of venous thromboembolism, and transitions of care. Meetings will highlight successful interventions as outlined in the respective quality improvement (QI) implementation guides and resource rooms. Meetings will aim to include 20 to 50 participants.

The last piece of the SHM Heart Failure Quality Improvement Initiative is in its final planning stages, and a third CME module for Team Communications as it relates to the heart failure patient will be developed in the coming months. This initiative is supported in part by Scios Inc. and led by Lakshmi Halasyamani, MD, associate chairperson of the Department of Internal Medicine at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Ann Arbor, Mich.

SHM Initiatives

An Advisory Board charged primarily with conducting gap analysis to determine strategies for and provide management of initiatives primarily addressing disease states (e.g., heart failure, VTE) or population groups (e.g., geriatrics);
A collection of clinical tools (such as standardized order sets, charting tools, guidelines) to support QI implementation and definition of measures, metrics, and related tools for capturing data essential to a specific disease state or population;
A Web-based QI resource room that provides easy access to the educational materials and decision support tools endorsed or developed by the Advisory Board. Resource rooms address antimicrobial resistance, glycemic control, heart failure, stroke, care transitions for older adults, and VTE. A resource room is being developed for acute coronary syndrome;
Education targeted at hospitalists, including face-to-face instruction through workshops or symposia at annual meetings, as well as interactive Web-based modules such as a video round table discussion (Point/Counterpoint);
Outreach to the hospitalist community, to foster use of the resource rooms, educational materials, and decisions tools;
A mentored implementation program that uses the resources developed by SHM and others to mentor hospitalists in leading a QI program relative to a specific disease state or condition. The VTE Mentored Implementation Program will roll out over the next two years. Proposals submitted to the John A. Hartford Foundation and Kettering Foundation will expand the program;
On-site consultation and technical assistance to institutions working to implement, evaluate, and sustain QI interventions; and
Demonstration projects that add examples of hospitalist-led QI efforts to the medical literature, providing the evidence needed to persuade local clinical and administrative leaders to support such programs and motivate individuals to launch local QI programs.