Fam med intern considering HPM

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markglt

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as an intern, who doesnt have much experience or exposure to hpm, other than some volunteer work..what is the ave. day like for an hpm attending...
other than talking with families and controlling pain, what do they do...
i dont really understand the specialty..
just digging into it now....
on a side note, im interested in addiction medicine, but hpm sounds/seems very interesting.
any insight/experience from fellows/attend. most apreciated:thumbup:

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I work full-time in the hospice field. I would say that 50% of my time is administrative (narrative dictation, eligibility assessments, IDT meetings, teaching, etc), and 50% is direct patient care. I do not see patients in a clinic setting. I see a few patients in the hospital, but most of my visits are in homes, SNFs, assisted living facilities, or our hospice residence. I do symptom management consults, face-to-face encounters to meet Medicare eligibility criteria, and family meetings. I also supervise our nurse practitioners.
I am on call one week at a time and rarely have to do more than direct things via telephone.
When a person is doing what he or she loves, the time commitment is seldom burdensome. That being said, I usually work 40-50 hours per week, and have a great work/life balance.
I hope that helps give you some idea of what a community hospice physician does.
 
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