Houston Methodist Division of Hospital Medicine 

The Houston Methodist Division of Hospital Medicine spans a vast footprint, providing care for up to 70% of patients admitted to Houston Methodist. We model clinical and operational excellence, leading to efficient care and improved patient outcomes.

We are leaders in hospital medicine on both a local and national scale. Our board-certified physicians are recognized for their clinical excellence, meaningful academic endeavors and innovative research to further the field of hospitalist medicine.  

The hospitalists in our division are highly skilled, bringing diverse talents and gifts to work every day. We collaborate and function like a family, caring for patients at their most vulnerable moments. Our clinicians exhibit and model patience, listening and empathy, charting acute and long-term plans that best meet patient goals and values.

Our experienced faculty are awarded honors such as the Edward C. Lynch Teacher of the Year Award and the Graduate Clinical Education Faculty Teaching Award. Faculty members play a crucial role in supporting the Hospital Medicine University Teaching Service (UTS) teams, where residents and medical students obtain hands-on learning experiences under the supervision of experienced faculty.

Members of our division are heavily involved in committees, including the Readmission Committee, Sepsis Committee, Emergency Room Quality Improvement for Nurses in Sepsis Identification and Response Committee, and more.

Our physicians provide extensive leadership across the hospital system, with Victor Narcisse, MD, FACP, serving as co-chair of the Hospital Governance Council and chair of the APP Oversight Committee. Associate Division Director Cherry Onaiwu, MD, MS, FACP serves as Chair of the Medical Records and Informatics Committee. Associate Division Director Martina Ogbonna, MD, serves as Medical Director of the Fondren 11 Medicine unit and as Associate Clerkship Director for EnMed students. 

Our Faculty ➝   Our Physicians ➝ 

Innovation and research are foundational to daily clinical practice. Interdisciplinary collaborations throughout our hospital system extend the reach of our extensive clinical research. We enhance operational efficiency and patient outcomes through optimized cohorting strategies, serving as the Houston Methodist Venous Thromboembolism (VTE) Champion and leading the Sepsis Extensivist Project. We partner with the Division of Geriatrics to reduce readmissions by using an intensivist. In addition, under the leadership of George Taffet, MD, our department is collaborating on a project to improve in-hospital sleep hygiene to prevent and curtail delirium among older adults. 

Our investigators also partner with the Houston Methodist Academic Institute to further the use of artificial intelligence to identify individuals at higher risk for deep vein thrombosis. Nurses in our division partner with the Center for Innovation for wearable devices that use biointelligence to help identify the deterioration of conditions in patients sooner. 

Our hospitalists seek to address the inherent complexities of night-shift patient care. Currently, our researchers are conducting a project to improve the ways doctors communicate with patients in the middle of the night virtually, when it is challenging to get doctors to the bedside. These advancements reduce the time patients must wait to see a physician. 

Our division is a leader in the adoption and implementation of new technologies used throughout the hospital, including the QGenda Platform Implementation. This robust scheduling, accounting and communication tool now serves as the principal platform for all of Houston Methodist. It offers real-time communication capabilities that facilitate seamless interactions between the emergency room and hospitalists, improving response times, patient handoffs and overall coordination of care. This also improves antibiotic turnaround times and pharmacy utilization processes. 

We support the career development of Internal Medicine residents into fellowship and hospitalist positions, teaching students to provide the highest level of clinical care to each patient admitted to the hospital. Our teaching is comprehensive, imparting valuable clinical insights coupled with the importance of compassionate communication to patients and families. 

The education and training within our division is bolstered by strategic collaborations with outstanding academic and research organizations such as Texas A&M, Weill Cornell Hospital Medicine Division and the Houston Methodist Research Institute. The increased presence of internal medicine residents within the inpatient units and the ICU creates a longitudinal primary care track with the Houston Methodist Primary Care Group. 

The Internal Medicine Residency continues to grow, including a recent expansion from 17 to 23 residents per class. Residents benefit from extensive involvement with clinical service, quality improvement and clinical research. Our residents contribute to committees and peer-reviewed research publications. 

Hospitalist medicine topics are regular features in the internal medicine weekly grand rounds. We also extend our educational reach into the community, providing a series of health care educational outreaches for patients from diverse and historically underrepresented communities. 

An Annual Sepsis Symposium each September features speakers across key sepsis topics in order to increase health care provider competency and performance.