Society Of Hospital Medicine To Host Eighth Annual Meeting Of Hospitalists April 29-30 In Chicago

PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- The Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM) will hold its eighth annual meeting April 29-30 in Chicago with more than 1,000 physicians from around the country expected to attend. Entitled: “Hospital Medicine 2005: Strategies for Success,” the meeting will provide attendees with tools to improve clinical care, solutions to operational challenges in hospital medicine programs, and strategies for attaining leadership roles within their hospital settings.

Keynote speakers at the meeting will include some of healthcare’s most distinguished thought leaders and change agents, including: Arnold Milstein, M.D., co-founder of The Leapfrog Group; Dennis S. O’Leary, M.D., president of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations; Richard H. Wade, senior vice president, American Hospital Association; and Robert M. Wachter, M.D., professor and associate chairman of the Department of Medicine at the University of California at San Francisco. The meeting will also feature practical discussions, workshops and forums by some of the nation’s leading hospitalists.

The meeting will offer five educational tracks, allowing hospitalists the opportunity to attend workshops that best meet their personal needs in the areas of Adult Clinical Medicine, Pediatric Clinical Care, Quality and Patient Safety, Operations, and Academic Medicine.

Other highlights of the meeting will include the presentation of Awards of Excellence, which recognize achievement in hospital medicine, and the installation of new board members and officers.

Prior to the start of the main conference, SHM will offer three pre-courses on April 28: “Best Practices in Managing a Hospital Medicine Program;" “Critical Care Medicine for the Hospitalist;" and “Perioperative and Consultative Medicine.” CME credit will be offered for all three courses.

The Society of Hospital Medicine is the premier medical society representing hospitalists -- physicians whose primary focus is the care of hospitalized patients. Over the past few years, research studies proving that hospitalists decrease patient lengths of stay, hospital costs and patient mortality rates while increasing patient satisfaction, have galvanized the hospital medicine profession and spurred demand for hospitalists nationwide. Currently, hospital medicine is the fastest-growing medical specialty in the U.S., with today’s 12,000 hospitalists projected to grow to about 30,000 by the end of the decade. For more information about SHM or the SHM annual meeting, visit the Web site at http://www.hospitalmedicine.org/. To register for the meeting, call 800-843-3360 or 215-351-2742.

The Society of Hospital Medicine

CONTACT: Lisa Freeman, +1-818-597-8453, lisaf@kevinross.net, for TheSociety of Hospital Medicine