Monthly Archives: June 2016

A question searching for answers… “How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore and a Scotsman, dropped in the middle of a Forgotten spot in the Caribbean by providence Impoverished, in squalor Grow up to be a hero and scholar?” I wish I heard those lines rapped in person, but getting Hamilton tickets is […]

SHM & Hospital Medicine in the News: June 9 – June 23, 2016 This issue of SHM & Hospital Medicine in the News features: An update on the Oregon hospitalist union, which recently reached a tentative agreement with the hospital at which its members work, causing them to cancel their informational picket Medicare’s draft proposal […]

How often do you hear the following: the average senior utilizes  25% of their lifetime health spend during their last six months of life.  Too much. All that service use in such a concentrated period suggests possibilities. ICUs and inpatient care have great costs.  Our acute and post-acute institutions also do not hold up as […]

A lot has been written about physician (or provider) burnout. Some of the highest burnout rates include internists and ER doctors, both of which live in our wheelhouse, and some factors that impact the burnout rate have included too many bureaucratic tasks, insufficient income, the computerization of medicine, the ACA, (thanks Obama), insufficient income in […]

By: Dr. David Schwartz Senator Elizabeth Warren once said, “If you don’t have a seat at the table, you are probably on the menu.” While somewhat amusing on the surface, Warren’s comment cuts to the core of why my colleagues and I decided to form the first hospitalist specialty union. The Outsourcing: In 2014, a […]

SHM & Hospital Medicine in the News: May 26 – June 9, 2016 This issue of SHM & Hospital Medicine in the News features: The first picket organized by the first hospitalist union in the US, formed in late 2014 in Eugene, OR A national story in Forbes focused on alarm fatigue and potential remedies […]