Company Overview
Key Facts about Sound:
- Created in 2001 by founder, Dr. Robert A. Bessler, President and CEO
- Headquartered in Tacoma, Washington
- More than 300 hospitalist physicians and nearly 80 support personnel
- Provides healthcare in about 30 acute care facilities and more than 50 subacute care facilities.
- Cared for more than 100,000 patients in 2007
- Cares for hospitalized patients for more than 1,500 referring physicians
- Practices in Washington, Oregon, California, Colorado, Arizona, and Montana - expanding to additional states in near future
- Maintains local presence in all regions
- Privately held corporation
Sound Inpatient Physicians (Sound), a leading hospitalist company, provides compassionate, skillful medical care to hospitalized patients nationwide. We continue to expand, currently serving hospitals in six states. Sound's partner hospitals and other payers benefit from our focus on patient flow, hospital efficiency and resource utilization. Through our specially-designed programs, we are successful in reducing healthcare costs, improving patient safety and improving delivery of care.
Our hospitalists have dedicated themselves to the care of the hospitalized patient. Our cohesive team approach provides expert, on-site medical care 24 hours a day, from admission to discharge. They work in close consultation with the medical community, including primary care physicians, emergency physicians and other referring specialists.
Sound is on the forefront of hospital medicine, a growing specialty that has revolutionized inpatient care for the betterment of patients, the medical community and hospitals.
Our patients are our greatest concern...
Sound is foremost dedicated to providing the finest medical care to our hospitalized patients. The practice of evidence-based medicine, while focusing on patient management, will typically reduce the patient's length of stay in the hospital as well as readmissions, thereby improving patient safety. By using hospital resources wisely, our hospitalists are better able to avoid unnecessary tests, reduce avoidable hospital days as well as readmissions, further improving overall patient safety and care. Our hospitalists are given reasonable patient responsibilities that allow them the necessary time to focus on each patient and their family. Our patients and their families appreciate the team's commitment to patient care.
Our physicians are our greatest asset...
Sound employs board-certified internal medicine specialists to join the physician hospitalist teams in the Sound partner hospitals. The foundation of Sound rests on our exceptional physicians. Therefore, recruiting and retaining the best physicians remains a primary focus. We support our physicians in structuring their work so as to lead a balanced life. Realistic scheduling, generous reimbursement, and ongoing professional development through the SIP Hospitalist Institute™ all foster professional satisfaction. Sound is a physician-led organization with key leadership positions throughout the organization held by physicians.
We value the confidence and trust of our hospital communities...
Hospitals are experiencing unrelenting cost pressures from the challenges of diminishing reimbursement coupled with rapidly increasing healthcare costs. Sound offers the hospital solutions beyond the bedside. Our hospitalists, in a cohesive team at their specific hospital, experience collaborative focus and effort not available to the solo physician. Due to their constant presence in the hospital and their dedication to inpatient care, the hospitalist is in a unique position to examine the details of the hospital systems. Through collaboration with the hospital, the Sound team undertakes specific initiatives to improve hospital efficiency and the working environment.
Sound nourishes collegial relationships with community physicians...
Sound provides the patient's primary care physician complete and personalized protocols of notification to ensure he/she is informed of the patient's admission, progress and discharge. Our hospitalists refer their patients back to their personal physician, with the record of their hospitalization, to ensure the smooth transition of care. If the patient doesn't have a primary care physician, Sound and the hospital provide one to follow up with the patient's medical needs.
SIP Hospitalist Institute - Redefining Hospital Medicine...
The role of the hospitalist is challenging and complex and includes a skill set not taught in medical school. In response to this challenge, Sound created the SIP Hospitalist Institute as an ongoing educational and professional development resource for our hospitalists. Through the SIP Hospitalist Institute, the company provides unsurpassed clinical and non-clinical curriculum.
Sound is a learning organization that supports and cultivates networking among our hospitalist teams. This ability to build and disseminate medical knowledge far exceeds what is available to individually run hospitalist practices or smaller regional groups. By fostering this expanding knowledge base, Sound is destined to set the standard among hospitalist organizations.
Web-based Application...
Sound's technology is a sophisticated, proprietary, web-based application, designed by Sound hospitalists, exclusively for the practice of hospital medicine. Accessible from any location, it facilitates communication, whether it is with the hospitalist's team members or the patient's community physician. It provides a vehicle for detailed sign-out during a shift change, relaying with written accuracy the critical details pertaining to the patient's diagnosis, treatment and condition, thereby increasing patient safety. With powerful reporting capabilities, it generates the reports analyzing length of stay, referral patterns, avoidable days spent in hospital and more. It provides Sound the accurate parameters on which to strive for improvements in patient care.
The Nine Sound Programs are the foundation for realizing our vision...
Sound has a tradition of hospital medicine leadership and innovation while adhering to the ethics of the medical and business worlds. Our partnership with the hospital is founded on a comprehensive approach embodied in the Nine Sound Programs which embraces the financial and legal realities facing medicine today. These programs address all aspects of inpatient care including the satisfaction of the patient, physician and nursing staff; quality outcomes; hospital efficiency and hospital administration. They set the stage for several forums with nursing staff, hospital administration, and community physicians to foster productive communication and positive change within the hospital.
Contact: Public Relations at Media@soundphysicians.com
