Daniel J. Brotman, M.D. - Understanding where patient load meets personal responsibility

For instance, you might see that on average when hospitalists have doubled their census during flu season, hand washing goes down. You’re dealing with the exact same providers so you can’t say it’s a function of having a different staff. You can potentially then blame the workload and say that hand hygiene takes a back seat when people are feeling like they are running around like chickens with their heads cut off. That type of analysis has never been done with physician staffing to our knowledge. We’d like to extend this work to that area.

Whether or not ultimately there can be recommendations made in terms of how to gauge staffing levels and construct workflows in a safe way is a longer-term goal of Dr. Michtalik’s, and I am fully supportive of this work.

Take us to your leader. Nominate a hospitalist whose work inspires you. E-mail suggestions to mschneider@frontlinemedcom.com.