The Fourth Annual Kaiser Permanente Hospital Medicine Conference will take place September 12 and 13 at the Paradise Point Resort & Spa, San Diego, Calif. This is a conference for physicians working in the Permanente hospital system in hospital medicine, internal medicine, emergency medicine, family medicine, and intensive care medicine. This year’s conference will, in addition to looking at the latest in hospital care techniques and reviewing evidence-based treatments for common acute conditions, focus on issues of ethical and compassionate care for patients near the end of life.

Other topics on the agenda include the use of mobile computers for physicians on rounds; determining whether patients understand what physicians are saying to them; and implementing a team approach to safety and error reduction. Among the featured speakers will be Mark V. Williams, MD, FACP, who established the first hospitalist program at a public hospital in 1998.

The meeting is open to non-Kaiser Permanente physicians as well. To learn more, click here for the Hospital Medicine website.