Great news! The long-anticipated 2016 State of Hospital Medicine (SoHM) Report was released last week to rave reviews. Pre-orders of the report blew away previous records, and that’s on top of the almost 600 hospital medicine groups (HMGs) that received free versions of the report as a result of participating in the survey. Again this year, the SoHM Report breaks down the latest statistics for a number of salary and workload benchmarks and a wide variety of HMG structural and operational characteristics that inform those two areas.
I was privileged to be on a web conference last week in which SHM staffer extraordinaire Patrick Vulgamore, the primary writer/editor of the report, walked us through the enhanced online version. And I have to say it’s a massive upgrade to previous digital versions. Two extra-cool things about the new digital version:
- It is searchable.
- It can be accessed via a mobile app.
Search Functions. Previous digital versions of the SoHM Report were basically static PDFs. So if you wanted to find specific information in the report, you had to wade through a dense table of contents or simply page through the report looking for what you wanted. The new digital platform offers a couple of different search modes including searching by keywords, such as “Schedule” or “Compensation,” which makes finding what you are looking for a whole lot easier. You can also download individual pages of the report so that they can be saved or printed out.
Mobile App. Okay, I’m not exactly on the young side of the bell curve of those involved in the world of hospital medicine. As recently as a couple of years ago, I couldn’t understand why anyone would want to use their smart phones for accessing most websites or streaming music or video. But I’m evolving, and even I am sold on the idea that I can now access SoHM information any time I need it by simply by punching my touchscreen a few times. The mobile app has a few flaws, and it’s kind of hard to view full tables on such a small screen (though you can easily zoom in and out), but these shortcomings are more than made up for by the ability to quickly and easily access SoHM data anywhere, anytime. Check out the screen shot below.
Rachel Lovins, MD
“Every time it has come out, I’ve found the SoHM Report to be an invaluable aid in helping my own group and hospital leaders understand the world of hospital medicine. Any leader in hospital medicine should make themselves familiar with the SoHM if they want to represent themselves correctly to administration and to their hospitalists.”
– Rachel Lovins, MD, Chair, Department of Hospital Medicine, Middlesex Hospital, Middletown, CT
Of course, the SoHM Report is also available in hard copy, with the same colorful graphics and easy-to-follow layout. I personally have relied on my paper SoHM Report more than the digital version, though that may change with the new digital platform.
You can get more information about the 2016 State of Hospital Medicine Report at www.hospitalmedicine.org/Report16, including a “What’s New” tab, an FAQ page and a video tutorial for the new app. If you’re ready to go straight to purchasing/accessing the app, you can do so at https://sohm.hospitalmedicine.org/.
Let me know what you think of the new and improved 2016 State of Hospital Medicine Report.
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