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Society of Hospital Medicine Media Information Kit

View the Complete SHM Media Information Kit or read the At-A-Glance Information provided below:

SHM At-A-Glance

Name

Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM)

Mission

Established as the leading national voice and resource for hospitalists and dedicated to supporting and enhancing the practice of hospital medicine and the delivery of the highest-quality care for all hospitalized patients.

Founded

Founded in 1997 by Internists John Nelson, M.D., of Bellevue, Washington; and Winthrop Whitcomb, M.D., of Springfield, Massachsetts. The Society of Hospital Medicine celebrates its 10-year Anniversary in 2007.

Goals

• To promote high-quality care for all hospitalized patients.
• To promote education and research in hospital medicine.
• To enhance medical staff teamwork to achieve the best possible care for hospitalized patients.
• To advocate a career path that will attract and retain the highest quality hospitalists.
• To define the competencies, activities and needs of the hospitalist community.
• To support, propose and promote changes to the healthcare system that lead to higher-quality and more efficient care by hospitalists.

Activities

SHM:

• provides continuing education and industry updates for hospitalists through a monthly publication, The Hospitalist;
• publishes the nation’s first and only peer-reviewed journal for hospital medicine, The Journal of Hospital Medicine;
• conducts surveys, prepares written analyses and conducts discussion forums that define the specialty of hospital medicine as it continues to evolve;
• develops policy and position statements that address the concerns and issues of hospitalists;
• advocates on behalf of hospitalists before other medical societies and government and regulatory agencies

Membership

Approximately 6,000 members as of December 2006. Membership is open to physicians in training and in practice, healthcare administrators, healthcare analysts, and others interested in hospital medicine.

Founders

Internists John Nelson, M.D., of Bellevue, Washington; and Winthrop Whitcomb, M.D., of Springfield, Massachusetts

Leadership

Current President:
Patrick Cawley, MD
Executive Medical Director
Medical University of South Carolina
Charleston, South Carolina

Chief Executive Officer:
Laurence Wellikson, M.D.
Philadelphia, PA

SHM Headquarters:
Society of Hospital Medicine
190 North Independence Mall West
Philadelphia, PA 19106-1572

Web Site:
www.hospitalmedicine.org  

Media Contact

Heather Abdel-Salam
Public Relations and Marketing Coordinator
Society of Hospital Medicine
Phone: 215-351-2479
Fax: 215-351-2536
Email: habdel-salam@hospitalmedicine.org

View the Complete SHM Media Information Kit

Hospital Medicine At-A-Glance

Hospital Medicine

The fastest-growing medical specialty in the U.S. focusing on the treatment of hospitalized patients. In October 2006, the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) announced plans to recognize hospital medicine as a distinct field of Internal Medicine, and began pursuing a plan of Focused Recognition for Hospital Medicine.

Hospitalists

Physicians whose primary professional focus is the general medical care of hospitalized patients. Their activities include patient care, teaching, research and leadership related to hospital care. Many patients are referred to hospitalists by their primary care physicians (PCPs) for treatment during the duration of their hospitalization then returned to the care of their PCPs after discharge. Hospitalists consult on and treat patients referred by surgeons and medical subspecialists during their hospitalizations. Hospitalists also care for the “unassigned patient” who has no primary doctor.

Training

About 75 percent of practicing hospitalists are trained in general internal medicine, while 11 percent are trained in general pediatrics, 3 percent in family practice medicine, 4 percent in an internal medicine subspecialty, 3 percent in internal medicine pediatrics, and 3 percent are non-physicians or physician assistants.

Current Number of Practicing Hospitalists

An estimated 20,000 hospitalists practice today, making hospital medicine about the size of gastroenterology or neurology.

Anticipated Need of Hospitalists

A 1999 manpower analysis initially projected that by the end of the decade the hospitalist workforce would grow to approximately 20,000 making the field about the size of cardiology. It is now believed that the number of hospitalists could be 30,000 or more by the end of the decade.

Presence

Virtually all of the country’s leading hospitals have embraced hospital medicine, including the Mayo and Cleveland Clinics, Harvard teaching hospitals (Brigham and Women’s and Beth Israel Deaconess), and the hospitals of the Universities of California (San Francisco), Chicago, Pennsylvania and Michigan. In addition, many of the nation’s largest managed care programs – including Humana, Kaiser, Aetna, PacifiCare, Cigna and others – are supportive of hospital medicine programs.

View the Complete SHM Media Information Kit