How to Verify Your Value as a Hospitalist
EXPERT ANALYSIS FROM A MEETING ON PERIOPERATIVE MEDICINE SPONSORED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI
A key strategy – formation of a multidisciplinary team – improved performance measures. "This is not a doctor thing. This is a nurse, a respiratory therapist, a pharmacist, and probably with the least amount of involvement, a physician [thing]." He added: "VAP rates dropped. That new ICU was never built. We don’t have a shortage of beds in our ICU."
Ongoing maintenance and feedback are important components of any intervention to improve value of care based on measurable performance outcomes, Dr. Li said. He applauded transparent efforts by Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center to post their performance measures online. For the first quarter of 2012, the institution reported 97% performance on VAP prevention efforts, exceeding their 90% goal.
Communication and working together in a true multidisciplinary effort are essential. Dr. Li suggested attendees go back to their institutions, choose a patient at random, and open up chart notes written by physicians and compare them to the notes written by nurses. Often you will discover two different accounts written by clinicians working in parallel but with little interdisciplinary communication, he said.
Dr. Li disclosed that he receives honoraria from publishers Elsevier and Wiley. Elsevier is the parent company of this news service. Dr. Li is also a member of the American Board of Internal Medicine Hospital Medicine Maintenance of Certification Test Committee.
