by Dr. William “Tex” Landis, FHM
It’s Super Bowl time and that means it’s time to complete the State of Hospital Medicine Survey, the biennial survey of hospitalist practices. Discussions abound about who is the best football quarter back. Is it Peyton Manning, Russell Wilson, Tom Brady, or somebody else? What are the stats? What does each individual and team do well? How do they stack up against one another? How will championship caliber football teams perform? Who will be the MVP?
This time of year, as hospitalists, we should be even more concerned about the performance of our hospital care teams. The State of Hospital Medicine Survey helps us gather information about the specialty of hospital medicine so that we can compare our performance to other hospitalist groups. What is the best source of information to help us perform successfully? While I am not going to come down on the side of Brady or Manning (and they are certainly both in the discussion) what I have found to be the best source of information is the biennial State of Hospital Medicine (SOHM) Report published by SHM. The SOHM Report is one of the most valuable information resources for hospital medicine groups.
I think about five “S” constructs of hospital medicine programs; they are scope, salary, schedule, structure, and society. The SOHM Report provides, in my opinion, the best, most accurate and authoritative information on these important components of hospital medicine. The SOHM Report is the best place to go to:
• Find out what the service expectations are for a hospital medicine group
• Ensure that your compensation program allows you to attract, retain and motivate quality providers
• Evaluate your scheduling and staffing challenges
• Find and review anecdotal data on topics like nocturnist coverage, and quality incentives of a hospitalist group
The power of the SOHM comes from exceptional participation by SHM’s members and the thoughtful presentation and analysis by SHM. These two key elements require commitment from the individual hospital medicine groups, and the Society itself. Thus we all bear some responsibility to one another to thoughtfully and thoroughly complete the SOHM Survey to the best of our abilities. The value of the final product will reflect the attitude and effort each of us renders to it.
Completing the Survey does require a concerted effort. Our practice manager will devote a day to securing and entering accurate data for our group of 70-providers. But even the exercise of procuring and understanding the data helps us to comprehend the true portrait of our own program. I refer to the SOHM Report every time I interview a new candidate for our program, emphasizing our appropriate compensation and scope in comparison with national data. This data was in fact vital in a “market adjustment” for our compensation package that permitted more effective recruiting. Furthermore, data about scope of care is aiding our plans for interfacing with our critical care colleagues and assimilating Advanced Practice Clinicians (APCs) into our program effectively. The SOHM Report, a summary of data from the biennial survey, allows me to be confident in my positions on matters of concern to our program.
The State of Hospital Medicine Survey and Report strengthen our specialty of hospital medicine. The collective response and pooling of our individual professional and financial experiences into usable format provides the best source of data for making important sustainable resourcing decisions for our hospital medicine programs. Additionally strategic decisions regarding scope of service depend on accurate data as we know our changing environment will produce enormous pressures on our health care teams.
My group looks forward to and actively participates in the State of Hospital Medicine Survey because that is the only way that we can secure this vital information. Individually and collectively, the more thorough our participation, the more accurate the report and the better our operational and strategic decisions, which will allow us to negotiate what must prove to be a challenging future. I can only urge in the strongest terms that all hospital medicine groups fully participate in this important work that SHM facilitates.
To learn more and take the State of Hospital Medicine Survey, please click here.
Dr. William “Tex” Landis is the medical director for Wellspan Hospitalists in Pennsylvania. He oversees work at three venues; York Hospital, Gettysburg Hospital, and the Wellspan Surgical and Rehabilitation Hospital.
Dr. Landis graduated with the highest scholarship award from Florida Institute of Technology and as the outstanding student from the University of South Florida College of Medicine in 1982. He completed a three-year residency and an additional chief resident year at the Reading (PA) Hospital and Medical Center. In 1986 he entered private practice with Brockie Internal Medicine Consultants in York, Pennsylvania. Dr. Landis led the evolution of that five physician practice into what is now the 60 provider Wellspan Hospitalist Program.
During 27 years in York Pennsylvania, Dr. Landis has been honored as the teaching faculty of the year and voluntary teaching faculty of the year for the state of Pennsylvania by the ACP. He has served on the board of directors for York Hospital and the insurance branch of Wellspan. He is currently Chairman of the Department of Medicine at the Wellspan Surgical and Rehabilitation Hospital. Dr. Landis has been active in community service as a founding board member of Grace Fellowship Church and as coach for the Dallastown Area High School soccer team.
A member of the inaugural FHM class, Dr. Landis promotes the interests of Society of Hospital Medicine at the chapter level and at the national level as member and former chair of the Practice Analysis Committee.
Leave A Comment