Hospitalist comanagement---ask the right questions

I have expressed my concern in previous posts about the recent uncritical promotion of this idea. Amidst the unbridled enthusiasm for comanagement at SHM 2008 there was one voice of healthy skepticism: that of Dr. Eric Siegal of Cogent Healthcare, whose talk is profiled in the August 2008 issue of Today’s Hospitalist. His take? Many of the arguments for comanagement are based more on dogma than science. While comanagement can be a good thing it is not beneficial in some situations. Before embarking on comanagement hospitalst program directors must ask some tough questions.