The Hospitalist

Article: How High Can Your Support Payments Go?

As the healthcare system attempts to cut costs, financial support to HM groups continues decades-long surge.

Article: It Takes a Village

Safe transitions for indigent patients are a common, complex problem; HM can help lead hospital-community collaborations to improve outcomes

Audio File: ONLINE EXCLUSIVE: Hospitalists discuss the time-honored tradition of hospital payments to HM groups

Troy Ahlstrom, MD, SFHM, CFO of Hospitalists of Northern Michigan, a hospitalist-owned and -managed group based in Traverse City, and John Laverty, DHA, vice president of hospital-based physicians at HCA Physician Services in Nashville, Tenn., discuss hospital payments to HM programs

Article: ONLINE EXCLUSIVE: Quick fix eliminates indigent discharge problems

Experts identify the “weak links” in discharge communication and offer an important “quick fix” to eliminate discharge problems

Audio File: ONLINE EXCLUSIVE: Listen to experts discuss drug shortages

Hospitalist Lalit Verma and ISMP President David Cohen talk about the myriad reasons behind drug shortages

Cover Story: ONLINE EXCLUSIVE: Subsidy or Investment?

HM’s financial support moniker could use its own marketing campaign

Audio File: ONLINE EXCLUSIVE: Hospitalists discuss strategies for indigent transitions

Experts discuss barriers to treating indigent patients, medication management's role in safe transitions, and new programs to help the homeless and uninsured population

Article: Fast and Furious

Storm-chasing hospitalist does emergency duty in Missouri

Article: Cause For Concern

Drug shortages disrupt operations, tax hospitalists' treatment patterns

Article: Team Hospitalist Seats New Members

Six hospitalists have joined Team Hospitalist, the only reader-involvement group of its kind in HM.

Letters: Red Flags within Documentation for Hospitalists

With the number of clinical hospitalists still growing, more patients are under HM care, which puts hospitalists at higher risk for lawsuits.

Society Pages: Policy Corner

CMS, providers Work Together to Develop ACO Models

Society Pages: Discharge improvement

Project BOOST helps hospitals provide safer transitions for older adults

In the Literature: In the Literature: HM-Related Research You Need to Know

Physician reviews of the latest research, including risks of preoperative tobacco use, timing of perioperative beta blocker use and outcomes, outcomes of atenolol vs. metoporopol for perioperative beta blockade, and continuous vs. bolus dose diuretics in CHF.

Key Clinical Question: How Is SIADH Diagnosed and Managed?

KEY POINTS: Clinical assessment of volume status is often inaccurate. Acute symptomatic hyponatremia is treated with 3% hypertonic saline. Chronic hyponatremia is managed with fluid restriction and salt tablets. Vasopressin receptor antagonists might play a role in chronic hyponatremia management.

Public Policy: Global Perspective

Healthcare policy varies by country, but U.S. lags in key areas

Residents’ Corner: Into the Night

HM’s graveyard shift has professional, financial benefits

Billing & Coding: Academic Institutions

Hospitalist involvement, visit level key to teaching physician services

Innovations: Ultrasound More Common at the Bedside

A recent “Current Concepts” article in the New England Journal of Medicine (2011;364:749) by a pair of Yale University physicians asserts that the day is close at hand when ultrasound interpretations by clinicians at the patient’s bedside will become as routine in hospital care as the trusty stethoscope.

Ask Dr. Hospitalist: Dr. Hospitalist

Your hospital medicine questions answered

President’s Column: What Is Your Value?

A proactive approach to collecting, sharing quality data is in your best interest

From the Editor’s Desk: Subsidy or Payment?

The story of hospitalist funding in six questions

Practice Management: New Developments

Financial support grows, while hospitalist recruiting shows signs of slowing.