Check out our top Division of Hospital Medicine (DHM) accomplishments from the last quarter!
Get to know the newest faces around DHM!
Stay up to date with the latest wins, recognition, and awards within the DHM.
Explore our recently published research and articles featuring team members from our division!
Explore the daily happenings in hospital medicine that build into our efforts to improve lives through excellence in patient care, education, and cutting edge innovation.
We’re on a mission to Build Better Work for our clinicians and our patients. Learn what that means to us and read about some of the projects that are coming from this focus.
Stay up to date with the latest DHM announcements, events, social posts and more!
I am excited to share our Fall DHM Newsletter, celebrating the incredible achievements and milestones of our team! This issue highlights innovative care
models like our virtual hospitalist service, our collaborative efforts to build optimal work design, and our strong commitment to advancing our academic mission. You will also find leadership updates, team member spotlights, and recent accomplishments that showcase our dedication to improving patient care, education, and research. Stay connected and enjoy the read! And last but certainly not least, Happy Thanksgiving to all our incredible colleagues! Wishing you a season filled with gratitude, joy, and meaningful moments!
A Message from Marisha Burden, MD, MBA
#CUDHM ACCOMPLISHMENTS
DHM Top Quarterly Accomplishments
These are just three of the many accomplishments for this incredible team. Stay tuned for our next newsletter and follow us on X @CUDivHospMed to hear what we are up to next!
Innovative Care Models: Virtual Hospitalist
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One way we’re advancing patient care is through innovative care models like the Virtual Hospitalist program. This initiative has now expanded to daytime and nighttime services, striving to offer continuous, high-quality care. The program leverages cutting-edge technology to provide remote expertise, ensuring better patient outcomes and operational efficiency. We plan to continue exploring this option of care to see how we can further enhance care delivery and implement any opportunities we see fit.
Supporting our Academic Mission
Our Division will have two named scholars through the University of Colorado Department of Medicine Scholars Program. Through two generous donations, this program will support two research faculty to take their ideas to the next level. During this program, early to mid career faculty will have the opportunity to apply for funding and take their innovative ideas to the next level. In addition, we have implemented a transformative grant cycle within our division. This opportunity is aimed at projects with the potential to spark ongoing investigation, secure additional funding, or achieve peer-reviewed publication. These grants bring ambitious ideas to life! We are looking forward to these new opportunities to provide our team with various ways to grow and expand innovation in hospital medicine.
3 Entering our PRiSM Season
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Performance Reviews in the School of Medicine (PRiSM) is a wonderful opportunity for our faculty to share and get feedback on their tremendous accomplishments as they build their CVs and careers. We have an amazing group of 26 DHM leaders serving as primary reviewers this year and we are grateful to them for sharing their expertise. Representative of our growth as a division, we will be completing over 170 reviews this cycle.
NEWEST TEAM MEMBERS
Welcome the Newest #CUDHM Team Additions
We want to give a warm welcome to our newest admin team member starting November this year!
Nancy Ramirez, BA Business Services Entry Professional
“The University of Colorado Division of Hospital Medicine (CUDHM) is an established national leader driven by its mission: Improving lives through excellence in patient care, education, and cutting edge innovation.
Our Mission
Staff Highlight - Finance
Fred Meisterplass, MBA | Division Administrator
Fred Meisterplass joined our division in June as the new Division Administrator. In this role, he provides overall oversight of our administrative team and brings a fresh perspective to our financial operations. With a strong background in healthcare, Fred offers valuable insights that help guide smart financial decisions, emphasizing a non-clinical lens to enhance our approach. Beyond his dayto-day responsibilities of supporting staff and leading new funds flow work for the division, Fred manages the division’s overall business affairs and promotes best practices. He also works closely with the School of Medicine and Department of Medicine to ensure divisional alignment with their projects and initiatives.
To further his professional development, Fred is participating in a 13-week course with the Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine (AAIM). The course, Foundations of Academic Internal Medicine for Department and Division Administrators, explores topics such as supporting clinical and research missions and analyzing institutional structures. Fred plans to complete the program in December and is eager to apply what he learns to benefit the division.
We’re thrilled to share that one of our outstanding administrators, Cat Anderson, has been promoted to Clinical & Fiscal Operations Coordinator. In this new role, Cat will collaborate closely with Fred to support various clinical and fiscal operations. Her responsibilities include calculating day shift equiv-
alents (DSE), managing physician and APP full-time equivalents (FTE), and reviewing and adjusting funding distributions. She will also oversee extra shift payments, moonlighting reports, and assist with managing the continuing medical education (CME) budget. Outside of her professional achievements, Cat recently began pursuing her MBA at the University of Colorado Denver, demonstrating her commitment to growth and excellence.
#CUDHM WINS
Hospital Medicine Leadership and Role Updates
Medicine Consult Co-Directors
Amanda Johnson, MD & Phillip Vatterott, MD
Hospitalist Training Track Core Faculty
POCUS Lead
Robert (Jordan) Williams, MD
Medical Oncology
Assistant Service Line Director
Megan Spradlin, PA-C
Assistant Director of Education for APP Programing
Joseph Gulick, PA-C
Co-Director of the Adult and Child Center for Outcomes Research and Delivery Science
Learning Health System Core
Tyler Anstett, DO
Acute Care for the Elder (ACE)
Assistant Service Line Director
Courtney Enix, MD
Assistant Director of Patient Safety
Rachel Weiss, MD
Selected for Faculty Promotions Committee at the School of Medicine (3-year term)
Rebecca Allyn, MD
Selected as Department of Medicine
Faculty Senate Representatives
Brian Wolfe, MD & Tyler Anstett, DO
#CUDHM WINS
Wins & Awards
Grant
Grant
Aakriti Pandita, MD
Awarded DHM transformative grant for her study understanding the clinical usability of AI-assisted digital interventions.
Jason Persoff, MD
Co-Principal Investigator: DoD grant to receive a second year of funding for transforming a hotel into a hospital as an alternative care facility in disasters. They also published their first year of the same grant as the official playbook for the transformation available here.
Grant
Grant
Reem Hanna, MD
Proposal for Empowering Internal Medicine Residents to Work Effectively with Medical Interpreters: A Strategy to Improve Care for Refugee and Immigrant Populations has been selected for funding by the CU Anschutz Department of Medicine’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice (DEIJ) grant program.
Sarah Wachtel, MD
Awarded a Division of Hospital Medicine small grant for a project on implementing an Individualized Learning Plan for students in the Hospital Medicine Acting Internship (Sub-Internship) rotation.
Award
Award
Mel Anderson, MD
Dr. Mel Anderson recently became a “Legacy Member in Teaching” for the Academy of Medical Educators.
Rebecca Allyn, MD, David Cantu, MD and Sahar Taghvaei, DO
Received on behalf of Denver Health the American Medical Association Joy in Medicine Bronze Level recognition for collecting data and implementing evidenced based interventions to address provider burnout at Denver Health.
PUBLICATIONS & ARTICLES
Recent Publications
Check out our CUDHM faculty publications and blogs! Click here to see a list of the publications.
Article Highlights
ALCOHOL USE
DISORDER
COMMUNICATION
DURING HOSPICE
A Sharper Focus on Increased Cancer Risks from Drinking Alcohol
Written
by Mark Harden, featuring Eden Bernstein, MD
Communication gaps among clinicians may limit conversations about prognosis, hospice
Healio Q&A article highlighting Sarguni Singh, MD
SECURE CHAT MESSAGING
VETERANS HEALTH
ADMINISTRATION
PHYSICIAN COSTS
Is secure messaging in hospitals effective or disruptive? Or both?
Today’s Hospitalist article featuring Michelle Knees, DO
Hospitalists Provide Insight on Working at VA Hospitals
The Hospitalist article featuring Mel Anderson, MD and Adrienne Mann, MD
Are Doctors Costing Hospitals $300K Per Year?
Med Page Today, Featuring Marisha Burden, MD, MBA
DHM DAILY
Patient Experience Highlight
Tip of the Month
Discharge information and transitions of care are key improvement domains within patient experience.
To support discharge materials review by Successful Transition Education for Patients (STEP) nurses, please invite your patients to audio record the interaction. The STEP nurses are aware and supporting of this initiative. The practice can be particularly helpful for patients with vision or literacy deficits or for those who have limited English proficiency.
If interested in joining the above effort or leading your own, join the monthly DHM Patient Experience Task Force! Email Dr. Hillary Western for more details.
Mobility Initiative Highlight
National data highlights that patients spend 90% of their hospitalization in bed. At UCHealth, mobility is a priority to for our team to ensure our patients our reaching their daily mobility goals. Immobility can lead to pneumonia, delirium and loss of patient function, at times causing discharge to a nursing facility instead of home.
Our mission is for every patient to meet their goal at least once each day. Our division with UCHealth is embarking on a multifaceted effort to increase access to mobility equipment, grow our mobility technician and nursing team and engage our patients in provider-patient shared goal-setting. Improving patient outcomes one step at a time! Through these intiatives, we aim to be the best in enhancing mobility and improve patient outcomes.
Meet our Mobility Initiative Leadership Team
DHM DAILY
Mentorship Academy Recap
The 2024 Mentorship Academy was held at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus and brought together over 400 health care professionals and trainees from across the globe. The program highlighted mentorship as a vital skill for advancing academic medicine.
Read the full Mentorship Academy recap here
CUDHM Admin Team Leveling up their Growth School of Medicine Manager Certification Program
Two members of our CUDHM admin team (listed above) recently completed the eight-month Manager Certification Program offered by the CU Anschutz School of Medicine. This in-person program equipped participants with foundational skills and knowledge designed to elevate both aspiring and current managers. By engaging with a supportive cohort, our team had the opportunity to network with professionals outside our division and apply their learning in real-time. The program concluded with participants presenting a brief capstone presentation and written statement. Congratulations Lauren and Anna!
DOM Staff Mentorship Program
We are thrilled to celebrate the completion of the year-long DOM Staff Mentorship Program, which concluded this November. Our division was well-represented, with three staff members participating as mentees, one as a mentor, and both a staff and faculty member serving on the program’s leadership team. We are incredibly proud of the
growth demonstrated by all participants and excited to see how they will continue to excel. As part of the program’s conclusion, special awards were given to individuals who went above and beyond. Congratulations to Cat Anderson, recipient of the Growth Mindset Award, and Kelsey Keil, recipient of the Future Mentor Award!
Lauren McBeth, BA
Anna Samuel, BS
FALL SPOTLIGHT
Building Better Work
We are working to leverage the human innovation and research strengths within the Division of Hospital Medicine at CU Anschutz. We are focused on making growth and mentorship a priority while also exploring innovation in the technology space as well as several efficiency improvements. Learn more about the three buckets we are currently focused on in order to “build better work”.
“Our mission with the Building Better Work ‘Hive Mind’ initiative is to create a fulfilling career in medicine with the best patient outcomes.
Cognitive Load & Attention
Dr. Knees has focused her research on cognitive load and attention. There are three buckets to consider when talking about this topic: Intrinsic (simplify), Germane (maximize), and Extraneous (reduce) attention. The goal with studying these three buckets is to find better ways to optimize the workflow of clinicians to reduce their cognitive load and cultivate better attention for their patients.
Diagnostic Errors
Another Building Better Work initiative that our faculty member Dr. Raffel is focused on is diagnostic errors in the clinical space. Instead of focusing on diagnostic adverse events that lead to harm, Dr. Raffel is taking a different approach to focus on “the things that go right”. By adjusting the approach on this topic, we can look at diagnostic errors with a new perspective to ensure
Evidence-based Work Design
Our division head, Dr. Burden has spent a lot of time and research into the topic of evidence-based work design. This is essentially looking into various work models, environments, and processes to see how those impact different outcomes. Some of the outcomes we consider are patient safety and quality, worker health and wellbeing, and organizational outcomes. This all leads to the question: How should you think about the work environment and we continue down the path of making the right decisions for our patients ultimately leading to less errors. Another perspective to consider in this space is how AI might impact diagnostic errors.
how can you measure it? Several CUDHM team members are working on collecting data through an app, GrittyWork to measure these considerations.
Michelle Knees, DO
Katie Raffel, MD
Marisha Burden, MD, MBA
STAY CONNECTED
Upcoming Dates
Announcements
Our 2025 POCUS Course Dates are out!
Join us March 3-4, 2025, for our spring POCUS Course! The Rocky Mountain Chapter of the Society of Hospital Medicine Point-of-Care Ultrasound Course is designed to allow participants to gain knowledge and skill in POCUS image acquisition, interpretation and integration into clinical decision-making. Live demonstrations, interactive case reviews, and didactics will complement hours of hands-on practice sessions. Completion of the 2-day course can be applied toward the SHM POCUS certificate of completion program and participants will receive 16 CME credits. For more information on this course, visit our website.
A Chance to be Featured
HISP 2025 Program Accepting Applications
Our HISP 2025 program will take place July 7 to August 1, 2025. HISP is an intensive training program for medical students who seek to lead innovative transformation of American healthcare. Though advances in science, technology, and models of collaboration promise continued discovery and improvement in human health, the care systems designed to bring benefits to patients do not live up to their potential. Visit our website or contact Kelsey Keil at DHM-Education@ucdenver.edu for additional information and application details.
For social media, newsletter or digital marketing content, please send your submission to Kelsey Hussey, BA at kelsey.hussey@cuanschutz.edu for a chance to be featured! You can also use our hashtag #CUDHM or tag us in your post.
