Christopher Frost, MD, FHM, has accomplished a lot in his career. He retired as a major from the U.S. Air Force Reserve. He’s been an ED physician. And now he is the chief medical officer of hospital-based physicians for Hospital Corporation of America.
Yet, he considers being the newest member of SHM’s Board of Directors a distinct honor.
“I am truly humbled to be participating with this group of energetic, intelligent, and wise individuals that comprise the SHM board,” Dr. Frost says in an e-mail interview with The Hospitalist. “[I’m] very eager to participate with this group, and ultimately, I would like for us, not me, to be able to say we had some positive impact on the specialty, whether that be for our providers, patients, families, or some combination thereof.”
Question: What drew you to hospital medicine?
Answer: During my chief [residency] year, I started moonlighting as a hospitalist for a large hematology/oncology group. I enjoyed the experience but did not really consider hospital medicine as a career option until I received a call asking if I knew of any residents who might be interested in joining a hospital medicine group undergoing rapid growth. Up until that moment, hospital medicine was just a moonlighting gig. It was still a relatively nascent specialty, and I did not realize it could be a career path. The call served as a catalyst to rethink my options.
Q: What keeps you engaged in the specialty?
A: The specialty attracts change agents. Individuals that are not necessarily satisfied with the status quo but instead are interested in collaborating with others to affect change. From a local level, in our community hospitals where hospitalists chair committees or serve as chiefs of staff, all the way to the national level where hospitalists are serving in such roles as the CMO of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services or as the U.S. Surgeon General.
Q: As a new board member, what do you now realize that you didn’t before?
A: One is what it means to be a part of a “big tent” organization, and the other is an appreciation of the breadth and depth of the talent found among the SHM staff. I knew that SHM was involved in a lot of different activities and that several other specialty societies and organizations seek out SHM based on the collaborative nature of our specialty society; however, I didn’t appreciate just how broad the scope of involvement extends. TH
Visit our website for more information on leadership.