Hospitalist medicine is the fastest growing medicine specialty and it continues to lead the way in transforming healthcare and revolutionizing patient care. UNC faculty physicians from the division of hospital medicine had a strong presence at the national meeting of the Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM) in March, held in Washington, DC, representing the UNC Department of Medicine with a rich selection of educational and research contributions.
UNC Hospitalist Michael Craig, MD, associate chief for clinical operations and associate professor of medicine, serves as the SHM District Chair, representing Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. He says the meeting theme emphasized the need for every hospitalist to lead positive change in order to impact the quality and affordability of health care, and he was proud of UNC’s contributions.
“We care for patients during some of the most vulnerable moments in their lives, focusing on managing their medical needs and finding the best path for getting them to discharge, in a safe and efficient way.
Our hospitalists are at the forefront of quality improvements and innovations that can ensure efficient quality care while reducing unnecessary hospital admissions.”
Following are highlights from the Society of Hospital Medicine’s Annual Meeting.
Ria Dancel, MD, who is national leader in point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) education for SHM, provided a pre-course workshop for participants. She also led the didactic session: Physical Exam Pearls in the Era of POCUS. Dancel’s contributions were recognized in The Hospitalist.
Erin Finn, MD, a third-year med-peds resident, won the pediatric category of the clinical vignette competition for her presentation: Teen goes viral, heart gets broken about a case of myocarditis in a 14-year-old. The competition and Finn were featured in The Hospitalist.
Finn and Scott Butler, MD, who is also a third-year med-peds resident, presented the clinical vignette poster: What’s in a Node? A Confusing Case of Fever and Rash. The poster had also won the NC Triangle SHM competition earlier this year.
Carlton Moore, MD, presented his poster, Combining Lean Six-Sigma Quality Improvement Methods with Safety Barrier Analysis to Develop Interventions that Reduce Hospital-Associated Veno-thrombolism (HA-VTE), which won the Innovations category at the NC Triangle SHM poster competition.
Christopher Caulfield, MD, presented his poster showing results from the first year of UNC’s Observation Unit: An interdepartmental collaboration to train residents and improve care.
John Stephens, MD, presented his poster on blood cultures in pediatric skin and soft-tissue infection: Variation in Blood Culture Rates for Pediatric Skin and Soft Tissue Infections.
Allen Liles, MD, presented his poster on the experiences of the behavioral health response team at UNC Medical Center: Who You gonna Call? Outcomes of an intervention designed to respond to acute disruptive patient behavioral episodes.
The Society of Hospital Medicine promotes high quality and high value health care, advancing state of the art hospital medicine through education and research, while improving hospitals and the health care community through innovation, collaboration and patient-centered care.