By Ruby Sahoo, DO, MBA, Director, Regional Performance for TeamHealth’s hospitalist services performance improvement team
I’ve been a hospitalist for almost ten years now, and have found many reasons it’s beneficial for a hospitalist physician to be involved in the Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM). It’s essential for hospitalist physicians to have an active voice and share collective best practices. And because there are many different aspects of hospital medicine, it’s helpful to have access to a body of resources accumulated by hospitalist physicians throughout the country when you need help.
Whether as a clinician or as a physician leader, whenever I faced a challenge to improve patient care at our facility, I turned to other physicians who had faced the same circumstances. Through TeamHealth and SHM, I have a vast network of hospitalist physicians across the country that I can reach out to and learn from.
Before joining TeamHealth, I was a hospitalist interested in getting more involved in hospital leadership. I was working to improve processes, better patient care and make life easier for the hospitalists in our group. I concluded that internal medicine residency training didn’t teach much about leadership. We are taught how to work as a hospitalist physician and clinician, but not taught the skills needed to be a competent physician leader.
I got involved in the Society of Hospital Medicine Leadership Academy and taking their courses helped me so much. When I joined TeamHealth, I recognized parallels between our leadership courses and those at SHM. The combination really allowed me to expand my skills as a physician leader and become more effective. Before that, I sometimes felt like I was spinning my wheels and spending a lot of time and energy trying to figure out the best way to do something and not always getting great results. Having both resources helped me get to that point where I can accomplish goals and do it in an efficient way. For the last four years, I’ve been a facilitator for the SHM Leadership Academy.
In conclusion, TeamHealth’s relationship with the Society of Hospital Medicine is not only helpful, but essential. Being a large company with many hospital medicine physicians, it’s vital for TeamHealth to stay involved with the main governing body of hospital medicine. I’m very appreciative of our partnership that benefits me as a hospitalist physician as well as my group, the facility, and the patients in our care.
A Message from TeamHealth
We are disappointed we couldn’t meet with you personally at HM20 in San Diego, California, but would love to still connect with you. Check out this site to learn about nationwide hospital medicine opportunities, receive information and resources on coronavirus and even enjoy a free cup of coffee on us for all the important work that you do.