SUMMARY
The hospital medicine movement was part of national media coverage about end-of life-care, business news and antibiotic use in the last two weeks.
SHM’s Senior Physician Advisor Dr. Eric Howell was quoted in a piece on “superbugs” in HealthDay that was syndicated to multiple national news outlets, including CBS News. Meanwhile, business and healthcare press covered the acquisition of IPC Healthcare by TeamHealth in early August and Time magazine included a column written by The Hastings Center leadership that mentioned SHM’s partnership with the organization to improve end-of-life care.
In an SHM first, Journal of Hospital Medicine (JHM) research appeared in Marie Claire, the popular outlet for fashion, style and career advice, in a story on the salary disparities between male and female hospitalists. Per CisionPoint, SHM’s online media database, the website garners 1.2 million unique visitors per month.
In regional media, the Western Tennessee Medical News featured a story on the life of a hospitalist at a local hospital, including his background and inspiration to work in the specialty.f
Media Highlights: July 30 – August 13
CDC: Thousands of deaths from drug-resistant “superbugs” preventable
An immediate, focused effort to halt the spread of antibiotic-resistant germs could save tens of thousands of lives and prevent hundreds of thousands of new infections over the next five years, a new government report suggests. Dr. Eric Howell, immediate past president of the Society of Hospital Medicine, agreed that long-term care facilities are key members of a community’s network and need to be included in efforts to track infections.
August 4, 2015
CBS News (originally published in HealthDay and picked up by multiple news outlets)
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/cdc-drug-resistant-superbugs-thousands-of-lives/
TeamHealth to Acquire IPC Healthcare for $1.6 Billion, Creating Leading Physician Services Organization
Team Health Holdings, Inc. announced a definitive agreement to acquire IPC Healthcare Inc., a leading national acute hospitalist and post-acute provider organization, in an all-cash transaction with an enterprise value of approximately $1.6 billion or $80.25 per share. The boards of directors of both companies have approved the transaction.
August 4, 2015
PR Newswire
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/teamhealth-to-acquire-ipc-healthcare-for-16-billion-creating-leading-physician-services-organization-300123211.html
Seizing a Medicare Moment to Improve End-of-Life Care
Two announcements from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) represent welcome news in the long struggle to improve end-of-life care. One long-awaited change will reimburse physicians and other professionals, such as nurse practitioners and physician assistants, for conducting advance care planning with patients who wish to do so. The other change will expand the Medicare Care Choices Model, allowing more patients to receive services under the Medicare Hospice Benefit without forgoing interventions aimed at curing or controlling a terminal illness.
July 31, 2015
Time
http://time.com/3980105/seizing-a-medicare-moment-to-improve-end-of-life-care/
Patient Notification of Observation Status is Now Law
President Obama last week signed the NOTICE Act, which requires hospitals to inform Medicare patients who are in the hospital under outpatient observation status that they haven’t actually been “admitted” to the hospital and what that means in terms of cost-sharing requirements and subsequent coverage eligibility. The new law aims to eliminate the confusion and surprise of out-of-pocket costs for Medicare beneficiaries who might not realize that simply spending the night in the hospital doesn’t make one an inpatient—and may leave one vulnerable to unexpected charges.
August 12, 2015
HealthLeaders
http://healthleadersmedia.com/content.cfm?topic=QUA&content_id=319548
Study puts Medicare’s three-day inpatient hospital stay in focus
Medicine has changed a lot since the 1960s, but Medicare still has in place a policy created in 1965 that requires that patients spend three days as an inpatient before they can be moved to a skilled nursing facility. “The concern is that the policy may be unnecessarily extending the length of hospital stays. We know that every day in a hospital carries some risk, whether it’s for an infection, blood clots or some other risk,” said health policy researcher Amal N. Trivedi, whose study appears this week in the journal Health Affairs.
August 6, 2015
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/business/healthcare-business/2015/08/06/Study-puts-Medicare-s-three-day-inpatient-hospital-stay-in-focus/stories/201508060073
Why Female Doctors Are Paid So Much Less than Their Male Counterparts
Even in a high-paying field like medicine, the gender pay gap still depressingly persists. A study published in the Journal of Hospital Medicine found that women doctors get paid less for the same work—but the reason why is pretty surprising. But researchers say the biggest factor when it came to the pay gap was priorities on the job. Though both men and women said work-life balance was their top priority in terms of job satisfaction, men listed high pay as their second priority, while women ranked it fourth.
August 3, 2015
Marie Claire (featuring research from the Journal of Hospital Medicine)
http://www.marieclaire.com/career-advice/news/a15311/gender-pay-gap-hospital-doctors/
Loving the Life of a Hospitalist
With a younger brother with cerebral palsy and a mother who owned a nursing home, Jay Shires, had more than his share of exposure to doctors from an early age. Seeing the interaction between doctors and his brother planted the idea of becoming a doctor in him. He also found that family practice was where his heart was and knew that was what he would pursue in medical school. It was during his residency training that he discovered that being a hospitalist gave him the challenge he longed for with the flexibility in scheduling that fit his lifestyle.
July 13, 2015
West Tennessee Medical News
http://www.westtnmedicalnews.com/feature-profiles/article/20000448/physician-spotlight-jay-shires-md-jacksonmadison-county-general-hospitals-hospitalist-group
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