Society Of Hospital Medicine's Reaction To President Obama's Remarks On Health Reform

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 11 Sep 2009 - 3:00 PDT

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In last night's remarks to the joint session of Congress, President Barack Obama outlined goals for changing the way healthcare is delivered in America. For the Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM) and the 31,000 hospitalists in the United States, recognizing the need for reform is an important step toward improving the quality of care for patients and transforming the nation's healthcare system.

"This is a critical time for meaningful change in the way patients are treated in the United States," said Eric Siegal, MD, FHM, chair of SHM's Public Policy Committee. "Hospitals will continue to be on the front lines of this change. SHM and its members have been actively working on many of the issues that the President raised last night."

In his remarks, President Obama encouraged "common-sense best practices by doctors and medical professionals throughout the system - everything from reducing hospital infection rates to encouraging better coordination between teams of doctors."

The President's plan addresses reforming the system of delivery of care, including controlling costs and aligning "incentives for hospitals, physicians and others to improve quality."

SHM has created programs to address these issues and others through quality improvement initiatives, such as its extensive online resource rooms on issues such as preventing venous thromboembolism (VTE), a potentially fatal blood clot that can occur during hospitalization.

SHM's Project BOOST, now implemented in 30 hospitals across the country, increases coordination between hospital care providers and primary care physicians to reduce readmissions to the hospital, a major drain on Medicare resources. Project BOOST is a yearlong program that empowers hospitalists to improve discharge practices in the hospital by providing them with resources and access to the leaders in the field.

Recently, SHM has agreed to collaborate with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to develop tools to reduce hospital-acquired infections. These tools and best practices will be distributed to SHM members and hospitalists across the country.

SHM has supported the federal government's efforts to reduce hospital-acquired conditions through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' value-based purchasing initiatives and by providing feedback on the recent HHS-issued Action Plan to Prevent Healthcare Associated Infections.

Additionally, SHM and its members have urged Congress to:

- Work to create incentives that reward quality, promote care coordination and drive more efficient care; and
- Support legislation that provides long-term relief from Medicare's flawed physician payment formula, strengthens the primary care workforce and reforms the medical liability system.

Earlier this week, SHM encouraged all of its members to contact their members of Congress and urge them to work in a bipartisan fashion on enactment of meaningful health care reform. Hospitalists were urged to share their personal experiences of why health reform is needed.

Source
Society of Hospital Medicine

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