Background: In 2016, there were more than 50,000 hospitalists working in the United States. The Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM) published ‘The Core Competencies in Hospital Medicine’ as a blueprint to standardize expectations of practicing hospitalists and to inform continuing medical education (CME) programs. We conducted a qualitative study to discover elements judged to be [...]

Background: Communication is recognized by the LCME and ACGME as an essential competency with significant patient safety implications; the Joint Commission cites communication errors as a major cause of sentinel events. Consultation is a near-universal method of communication between physicians of all disciplines. However, formal education in requesting a consultation is inconsistent in undergraduate medical education [...]

Background: Systems-based practice (SBP) is critical to physicians’ work and is gaining emphasis in medical school curricula. Purpose: In this hospitalist-led pilot curriculum for first-year medical students, we developed a novel didactic and experiential approach to teaching SBP skills, seeking to help students apply newly-acquired SBP concepts to inpatient improvement projects to add value to the clinical environment. Description: For the 12 [...]

Background: Despite the increase in female medical students and clinicians, gender disparities continue to exist for female clinicians today, from limits on upward mobility and leadership positions to unequal pay and more. Within medical education, existing research shows male students outperform female students on the USMLE Step 1 licensing examination, which has longer-term ramifications on [...]

Background: Today, Medicare patients account for approximately 50% of hospital days. Hospitalists are a key strategy for providing care to hospitalized older adults, however, most of these hospitalists have not received geriatric training. Faculty development is an important component to the success of a hospitalist program. We developed a geriatric-focused lecture series to improve the [...]

Background: Moral distress, the inability to act in accordance with one’s ethical beliefs due to hierarchical or institutional constraints, has been associated with burnout and poorer well-being.  Significant moral distress amongst American physician trainees might occur when they feel obligated to provide treatments at the end of life that they believe to be futile or [...]

Background: Hospitalization of the patient with advanced cancer can be a pivotal moment and opportunity to explore patient goals of care in order to deliver high value, patient-centered care that emphasizes quality of life. Part of this discussion should define patient preferences regarding code status as it is known that prognosis is extremely poor and [...]

Background: Rising healthcare costs have driven both the government and the private sector to seek cost-saving innovations in health care delivery. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) is leading this charge from a federal level, with burgeoning efforts coming from universities and private foundations. The Stanford Clinical Excellence Research Center (CERC) was established [...]