The Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM) is a medical society comprised of hospitalists that exists to promote exceptional care for hospitalized patients.
Hospital medicine groups come in many different sizes, structures and employment models all while working in distinct hospital environments and patient populations. Beneath these differences, however, there are some universal characteristics of effective hospital medicine practices.
With 47 individual characteristics organized into 10 key principles, the Key Principles and Characteristics of an Effective Hospital Medicine Group serves as a roadmap for new, experienced, and future hospital medicine groups to benchmark themselves, target areas for improvement, and implement practice changes.
Hospitalists are central to coordinating team-based patient centered care for hospitalized patients. Hospital medicine groups play a critical role in ensuring their hospitalists are equipped to provide the best patient care possible. The Key Principles and Characteristics helps groups self-assess and develop strategies for improvement. It gives leaders from the largest to the smallest practices the rationale, requirements, and suggested approaches to define their problems, develop feasible solutions, and take their HMG to the next level.
Self-evaluation and improvement are challenging. Here’s one way you could use the Key Principles and Characteristics of an Effective Hospital Medicine Group framework to do it.
Step 1: Assemble a task force to conduct a self-assessment and develop self-improvement plans.
The task force could include hospital executives, HMG leaders, and clinical leaders to promote dialogue between key leadership and build unity within your HMG. The task force should clearly lay out missional goals and set a schedule for evaluation.
Step 2: Take the Gap Assessment Tool.
Have each task force member take, save, and print their results. This tool was specifically built as a companion to the Key Principles and Characteristics framework and will reveal differences between leaders about areas of perceived strength and weakness.
Step 3: Determine the key areas of your practice to improve.
Compare results and identify top principles that are high-scoring as well as principles that are an agreed improvement area across all stakeholders.
Step 4: Create an implementation plan to make the necessary changes within your HMG.
Review the “Suggested Approaches” for each area needing improvement in Key Principles in the relevant characteristic and determine which are viable solutions for your HMG. Develop a detailed plan to implement suggested changes. Make sure your plan includes a list of required resources and establishes a timeline with a review period to test the impact of the intervention.
This resource is offered exclusively to SHM members. Not a member of SHM? Learn more about the benefits of membership.
