Course Directors:
John Nelson, MD, MHM
Overlake Hospital Medical Center

Leslie A. Flores, MHA
Nelson Flores Hospital Medicine

Course Overview:
The world of hospital medicine is evolving rapidly and so are the needs of those who lead and manage hospitalist practices. Beyond the core principles of staffing, scheduling, and compensation, hospitalist leaders are increasingly facing a new set of challenges related to managing growth and complexity—including proactively addressing an ever-expanding scope of practice, ensuring that management and workflow systems are scalable as the practice grows, and engaging hospitalists around organizational goals. Building on the foundation of SHM’s successful “Best Practices in Managing a Hospital Medicine” course, this new Pre-Course focuses on the skills hospital medicine leaders need to manage the increasing demands being placed on their practices and to succeed in today’s more challenging environment. The program is designed to offer participants a variety of perspectives and to equip them with practical information and tools to position their practices for success.

Objectives:
Upon completion of this activity, participants should be able to:

• Assess current trends in the hospitalist scope of practice and develop plans for proactively evolving the group’s scope of work in collaboration with other specialties
• Design and implement tactics for improving workload distribution, patient flow, communication-and multi-disciplinary collaboration
• Enhance the group’s effectiveness through improved internal governance, robust practice support staff and systems, and strategies for fostering a “culture of ownership”

Accreditation Statement
This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the Essential Areas and Policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint sponsorship of Blackwell Futura Media Services and the Society of Hospital Medicine. Blackwell Futura Media Services is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

Designation Statement
Blackwell Futura Media Services designates this live activity for the pre-course Taking Your Practice to the Next Level: Management Strategies for Challenging Times for a maximum of 7.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.