Research   

Since 1997, the UNM Hospitalist Group has stayed at the forefront of innovation. We have designed an academic hospitalist program—our faculty are practitioners, educators, researchers and leaders. As an academic medical center, we stay current on recent literature and best practices. 

As inpatient medicine rapidly expands, we are taking a lead in hospital quality and efficiency by leading on topics such as emergency department overcrowding, medication reconciliation, mortality reviews and quality walk rounds.  

We keep our educational mission at the heart of everything we do while balancing patient care and safety improvements. Like many institutions, our clinical loads have increased. In an effort to protect our educational mission, we have started non-resident services staffed with hospitalists and mid-levels.  

Process and Quality Improvements  

One of our main initiatives is quality improvement throughout the hospital. It is important that we create a department that is sustainable with growth, and that continually exceeds standards. 

We are currently focused on the following areas: 

• Best practices 
• BATCAVE Healthcare Simulation Program 
• Glycemic control 
• Medicine Units Process Improvement Group 
• Transitions of care and discharge planning 
• VTE prophylaxis  

Unique to our program, we have dedicated time set aside for continual review of inpatient satisfaction and success. We lead and participate in many other quality improvement endeavors, including care transitions, hand-offs, health IT and more.  

Other Endeavors   

To improve patient care quality and safety, we are also undergoing: 

• Collaboration with the emergency department to create a Rapid Response Team 
• Creation of non-resident services staffed with hospitalists and mid-levels  
• Review of all deaths that occur on our services for potential improvements 

In addition, our physicians are members and/or chairs of many hospital committees focusing on the EMR, patient flow, medical education, pharmacy, quality and safety. They are engaged in research projects including DVT/PE, medical education and infectious disease topics.  

If you are interested in Hospital Medicine at UNM, contact Monica Montoya on our contact page. If you are an APP and are interested in hospital medicine, we encourage you to apply for the Advanced Practice Provider Hospital Medicine Fellowship.