Applicable Themes, Big-Picture Thinking Take Root at HM12
Sitting in the back of a conference room at the San Diego Convention Center on Sunday morning, Benjamin Frizner, MD, listens intently as a panel of HM experts debates the finer points of how best to implement and manage multidisciplinary rounds. The conversation, one of dozens to be tackled at a daylong pre-course on practice management, gave Dr. Frizner and dozens of physicians around him applicable advice, new viewpoints, and time to think about the big picture.
Welcome to HM12.
“The topics are focused to a lot of the problems we are facing,” says Dr. Frizner, director of the hospitalist program at Saint Agnes Hospital in Baltimore. “It really gives us the whole day to just focus.”
Of course, the four-day meeting is only just starting. Sunday is dedicated to eight pre-courses that offer CME credits, including a new session, “How to Improve Performance in CMS’ Value-Based Purchasing Program.” Other pre-courses dealt with ABIM Maintenance of Certification, critical care, perioperative care, and hands-on training in ultrasound and other medical procedures.
The annual meeting continues Monday, April 2, and includes the Research, Innovations, and Clinical Vignettes (RIV) poster competition and plenary addresses from Patrick Conway, MD, MSc, FAAP, SFHM, a pediatric hospitalist and chief medical officer of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS); political commentator Norman Ornstein, PhD, MA, BA; and HM pioneer Robert Wachter, MD, MHM.
“This is the best meeting I’ve ever been to,” says Madonna Ringswald, DO, medical director of the hospitalist program at Baptist Hospital Northeast in La Grange, Ky., who attended the practice management pre-course. “If you can’t find a lecture [that appeals to you], there’s something wrong with you.”
