Greetings and welcome!
Established in 1998, the Division of Hospital Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania was one of the first academic hospital medicine programs in the United States. As we reflect on over 25 years of excellence, there is much to celebrate:
Recruitment and Promotion
Our program began with just 4 faculty members. Since then, we have grown significantly, particularly in recent years. Our group now has over 70 physicians spanning all faculty tracks in the School of Medicine (Tenure, Clinical, Academic, and Clinician-Educator), including several Full Professors, over 15 Associate Professors and over 40 Assistant Professors and Instructors. This growth reflects the overall growth of inpatient services at Penn Medicine, the depth and breadth of talent in our faculty, and our exceptionally low turnover. In addition to physician faculty, we have also welcomed many new Advanced Practice Providers (APPs - nurse practitioners and physician assistants) over the recent years, bringing our total from 9 in 2016 to 40+. We are proud to have a small but growing number of combined Medicine-Pediatrics hospitalists who have the opportunity to rotate at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). Finally, we have established a Hospitalist Scholars Subspecialty Track that supports recently graduated residents working gap years before subspecialty fellowship to complement our Academic Clinician and Penn Medicine Clinician tracks (for those seeking long-term hospital medicine careers).
Staff Growth and Leadership Development
In addition to outstanding recruitment and retention of providers, our core administrative staff has also grown with the addition of a Program Manager and Quality Data Analyst and a Staff Assistant/Program Coordinator. Our clinical services are also supported by a New Patient Coordinator. These roles have catalyzed tremendous organizational growth and provide critical support from professional staff enabling our growing leadership team which includes integrated physician-advanced practice teams with medical directors for each site (HUP, PPMC, and GSPP) as well as directors for service lines and special programs.
Scholarship and Education
Beyond our record of clinical excellence and collaboration across specialties in the School of Medicine, we continue to pursue excellence in our research and educational missions. Our faculty’s scholarly output measured in presentations at national meetings, publications in peer-reviewed journals, and grant dollars continue to increase each year and in 2018 we recruited our first-ever Director of Research in Hospital Medicine. Additionally, we have 3 full-time (NIH or VA funded) hospitalist-investigators within our group and directors for two major Centers at Penn (Center for Evidence-based Practice and the Center for Healthcare Improvement and Patient Safety). Our focus on education is also expanding with the launch of exciting new initiatives in recent years including a partnership with the Department of Emergency Medicine for an Internal Medicine Ultrasound Fellowship – one of only 2 in the US for internists. In addition to the prominent role our faculty play in attending on teaching services at HUP, PPMC, and since July 2022, HUP Cedar, many of our faculty have leadership roles in the medicine clerkships (including directors for both the 3rd year and 4th year clerkships) and in the residency program (including associate and assistant program directors)
Promoting Faculty Development and Wellbeing
All of the above accomplishments would be hollow (and unsustainable) if we did not also make deep and meaningful investment in the development and wellbeing of our faculty. Towards that end, we launched our first-ever Faculty Development Program in July 2017 as well as a Wellness Advisory Group which has helped redesign our onboarding process, established new annual traditions (summer welcome and holiday celebrations) and developed an annual awards ceremony for hospitalists and advanced practitioners. Junior faculty across all tracks are provided customized mentorship and small group faculty development regardless of final destination.
Looking back on our history, I am humbled and amazed at how much our group has accomplished. We have so much to celebrate and still so much more opportunity ahead of us. We aspire to maintain our history of excellence in the field of hospital medicine and our goal is to be the premier academic program in hospital medicine in the US.
Thanks for visiting our website and please contact us about career opportunities in hospital medicine at Penn – as we continue to grow, we are always looking for dedicated individuals to join in our pursuit of clinical, educational, research, quality, and leadership excellence!
Sincerely,
S. Ryan Greysen, MD, MHS
Chief, Division of Hospital Medicine
Executive Director, Center for Evidence-based Practice
Professor, Perelman School of Medicine
University of Pennsylvania