NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. – The next cohort of sites for SHM’s transitional-care program will be 20 California hospitals and health centers.

The agreement to expand Project BOOST (Better Outcomes for Older Adults through Safer Transitions) was made public by society cofounder Win Whitcomb, MD, MHM, chief quality officer at Mercy Medical Center in Springfield, Mass., during an academic pre-course session Thursday at HM10 just outside Washington, D.C.

It’s the second major expansion of the program this year. In January, 15 sites in Michigan entered into a collaborative BOOST program to be comanaged by the University of Michigan and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. Although details are still pending for the California model, it will be a collaboration with the California HealthCare Foundation, an independent nonprofit focused on improving healthcare and reducing costs in the Golden State.

BOOST works by pairing mentors with hospitalists at select institutions to improve care via a discharge planning toolkit. BOOST debuted late in 2008 with six pilot sites. After the California additions, the platform will have expanded to 65 sites.

Dr. Whitcomb’s news was just one of the tidbits tossed out during the practice management pre-course, one of eight daylong courses for hospitalists. Two new pre-courses debuted this year: “Early Career Hospitalist: Skills for Success” and “Essential Neurology for the Hospitalist.”

“It’s a very good learning environment where you can sit down and focus,” said Julius Yang, MD, PhD, a hospitalist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and the course director for the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) Maintenance of Certification (MOC) learning session. “It allows you to really immerse yourself in the information.”