hospitalists in hospitals

[juswilliams0978]

Our hospital is starting in the near future to use mid-level practitioners as "hospitalists". These mid-level practitioners will be able to do rounds on patients and write discharge orders without these patients having seen the doctor. I hear the wave of the future are "hospitalists". If this is the wave of the future, are MDs going to be obsolete in 20 or 30 years. Why go to school for an MD if you can become a hospitalist? What do you guys think. Are hospitalist a good idea?

[RNsRWe, ASN, RN]

You must not forget though that some private physicians don't maintain their privleges at all the local hospitals. There are some patients admitted to our ped's floor that are picked up by the attendings and residents because their pediatrician doesn't have privleges at our hospital.

Oh, it's not forgotten, but I'm not talking about an MD who doesn't have privileges at my hospital, but rather doesn't WANT to go to the hospital to follow up on patient care. Big difference! If I went to a hospital where my HCP didn't have privileges, then that I understand. But not wanting to take the time to follow on a patient ill enough for hospitalization, when he or she had no problems taking my money when I was able to make it in for regular health visits? No, thanks.

[RNsRWe, ASN, RN]

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I have had very good experiences as a patient with a primary care physician who does not do hospital calls, but collaborates with hospitalists and the appropriate specialists whenever I need to be admitted. The hospitalists I have known were all experienced MDs well-versed in cooperation and coordination among all the members of the health team. I plain English, that translates to the fact that no matter what time of day or night, I had a well-rested physician in charge of my care, instead of one so fatigued that (s)he could barely push one foot ahead of the other one. All the nurses in the hospital loved the system because it was so easy for them to get a quick response from a physician when one was necessary. They didn't have to spend needless time waiting for a call-back from a physician or surgeon who really needed to be asleep to prepare for the coming day.

Ah, great to see where it works well! I do have to admit it's nice to see a hospitalist's name on an admission form, as I know I can get ahold of one of them (they all cover each other) no matter what time of night. THAT is great. But as for them being great doctors who are just more well-rested than a person's own physician, well.....can't agree with that, but based on my own experiences. I wish I could endorse them more, but mostly I'm jaded because of the excessive admissions and overly-long stays that aren't justified, and NO other physician in a private practice does. And I don't believe it's because they just don't want to see their patients that they get them out faster, LOL....but rather, the hospitalists have zero incentive for getting ANY of those patients out the door on time.

[NurseLatteDNP, MSN, DNP, RN]

All of our hospitalists are MDs also.

[BBFRN, BSN, PhD]

Hospitalists are great for med rec on surgical patients, and for covering for the medical primary care providers. All of ours were MD/DO.

[classicdame, MSN, EdD]

All our hospitalists are MD's. They are a boon when admitting people in a hurry especially. No waiting for orders.

[MAISY, RN-ER, BSN, RN]

Our hospitalists are MDs and we love them. Each group is always on site. Patients are really seen...orders are written....and they can be paged overhead. I wish we could get rid of our admitting mds. Hospitalists= good standard of care with orders that make sense.

Maisy;)

[banditrn]

Hi there and welcome. I am a mid-level provider in a large nephrology practice. I make rounds in a total of five hospitals, 4 of which have MD hospitalists. These four also have "closed" ICUs meaning only the intensivist(MD) admits to the ICU. I like this concept in that we are consulted as are other specialists but the hospitalist/intensivist (MD) remains the "Capt of the Ship." This is very important for the care of the patient - to ensure that there is one person who KNOWS what is going on with the pt and who coordinates the specialty care.

I know of mid-levels that work for the hospitalists and they do see pts but certainly the MD must see the pt. Billing and just ethical patient care demand that.

Also - I am going to move your post to the general nursing forum in order to get you more answers.

Trauma - what is your level of education?