hospitalists

Nurses General Nursing

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What do y'all (southern and proud of it;) ) think of hospitalists? My institution recently added two who were and still are part of a local internal med. group and it doesn't seem to be any different. I had this notion that we would always call them when the pt was in the hospital but was told by one of them I should call the primary first. I don't know if this is a common experience or if it just isn't working here.

We love our hospitalists. If I ever get admitted, I will insist that they are my doctors.

Our hospitalist group has four for a hospital that averages 100 (in the summer) -150 (in the winter) in patients at any given time. They do not do peds or mother baby.

They are not in the hospital at night. But we can text page them through the hospital website, and they will answer immediately. They are NEVER rude, and are very respectful of nurses.

One was a pulmonologist before becoming a hospitalist; two were GPs, and one was a cardiologist. And they are good. About half of our PCPs give up their patients to the hospitalists. Frankly, I wish they all would. The hospitalist patients average a full 2 days shorter hospitalization. Most of their patients are in and out. And it is not because they are shorting them. It is because they are always available, make rounds several times a day, and are always checking on their patients. FOr example, a lot of our PCPs will do rounds in the am, order a test that day, but not even review and/or make a decision on the results until the next day--resulting in an additional, unnecessary overnight stay. They practice like docs 20 years ago (most of the WERE docs 20 years ago). But the hospitalist, making rounds several times a day, will get the patient out of the hospital after the test, if appropriate.

Another thing I like about the hospitalists is that they will come back and discuss discharge when the patient's family is available. They will just say, "page me when the family gets here, and I'll go over the dc instructions and meds with them." Can you imagine a PCP with a schedule full of patients doing that?

We love our hospitalists. They are very competent, reasonable, and consider nurses a part of their team. Almost every time I call, the hospitalist asks, "Well, what do you think? Do they need additional breathing treatments, or is this an anxiety thing that will resolve with a little xanax? Is this chest pain chest wall pain from their cough, or does it look like cardiac?" If you call and say you are uncomfortable wiht a situation, they honestly try to make it right, even if you can't articulate exactly why something is making you uncomfortable. They won't hesitate to disagree with you, or straight up tell you that you are wrong when they feel that you are; but they respect your opinion and your clinical judgement. I like working with them. They seem to have a better sense of humor than most of the docs; or maybe we just know them better.

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Specializes in Med/Surg.

I love our hospitalists! They are a great group of docs, and I would be pleased knowing that they were caring for me. They are very knowledgable and courteous. One of them is always there (even if they are sleeping in the lounge :wink2: ) and come see the patient no matter the time of day. We have one group of PCPs that have not turned over care to them, but the rest gratefully have. Occasionally we call one of the "other" PCPs and they're like "if they need anything else tonight, do a hospitalist consult" lol... get tired of hearing "so and so says these pain meds still aren't enough"! lol

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Specializes in CVICU, MICU, CCRN-CSC.
We love our hospitalists. If I ever get admitted, I will insist that they are my doctors.

Our hospitalist group has four for a hospital that averages 100 (in the summer) -150 (in the winter) in patients at any given time. They do not do peds or mother baby.

They are not in the hospital at night. But we can text page them through the hospital website, and they will answer immediately. They are NEVER rude, and are very respectful of nurses.

One was a pulmonologist before becoming a hospitalist; two were GPs, and one was a cardiologist. And they are good. About half of our PCPs give up their patients to the hospitalists. Frankly, I wish they all would. The hospitalist patients average a full 2 days shorter hospitalization. Most of their patients are in and out. And it is not because they are shorting them. It is because they are always available, make rounds several times a day, and are always checking on their patients. FOr example, a lot of our PCPs will do rounds in the am, order a test that day, but not even review and/or make a decision on the results until the next day--resulting in an additional, unnecessary overnight stay. They practice like docs 20 years ago (most of the WERE docs 20 years ago). But the hospitalist, making rounds several times a day, will get the patient out of the hospital after the test, if appropriate.

Another thing I like about the hospitalists is that they will come back and discuss discharge when the patient's family is available. They will just say, "page me when the family gets here, and I'll go over the dc instructions and meds with them." Can you imagine a PCP with a schedule full of patients doing that?

We love our hospitalists. They are very competent, reasonable, and consider nurses a part of their team. Almost every time I call, the hospitalist asks, "Well, what do you think? Do they need additional breathing treatments, or is this an anxiety thing that will resolve with a little xanax? Is this chest pain chest wall pain from their cough, or does it look like cardiac?" If you call and say you are uncomfortable wiht a situation, they honestly try to make it right, even if you can't articulate exactly why something is making you uncomfortable. They won't hesitate to disagree with you, or straight up tell you that you are wrong when they feel that you are; but they respect your opinion and your clinical judgement. I like working with them. They seem to have a better sense of humor than most of the docs; or maybe we just know them better.

I so wish that were our hospitalists. Our pt stay rate has increased 3 days when their primary doc is a hosp. Our pnuemonia rate has dramatically increased becasue of how long the "well" patients are staying in the hospital. Now, I do have to say, there are a couple that have been there for a couple of years that have become very competent. Maybe one day we will have a great group....

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Specializes in dialysis, OR.

We have 2 MD's and a NP. I absolutely love our hospitalists. They are wonderful to work with. They trust us, and we trust them. I am much happier when they are taking care of my patients than when a PCP is in charge.

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Specializes in Telemetry & Obs.

We have a great group as well. I love having their patients!! They're always available, come by pronto when there's an issue with a patient, and are in general just good dang physicians!! I wish they WOULD go into private practice because I'd sure enough go see them!!

Plus they know the discharge routine and we don't have to fight tooth and nail to get them to fill out discharge paperwork properly. Some of the PCPs just toss it back and refuse to do it. :angryfire

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Specializes in ER/Trauma.

I feel bad for ours - they get dumped on, big time. All nurses know what it "feels like" to be dumped on - so we kinda count some of our hospitalists as "one of us".

We're going through a transition right now - some of our hospitalists are leaving and some are staying. Don't know the n00bies well enough yet, but our older ones are good.

Especially this one Indian doc - no matter what time of the day, no matter how sucky his day has been, no matter how horridly busy he is - he is always pleasant and shows great manners; both bedside and when dealing with other health care staff. Whats better - we can always read his orders! Legibly written, clear in format and detailed in terms... all this with a legible signature, name and call number for reference look up!

Can we say "WOW!" ??? :D

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Specializes in Telemetry & Obs.

Especially this one Indian doc - no matter what time of the day, no matter how sucky his day has been, no matter how horridly busy he is - he is always pleasant and shows great manners; both bedside and when dealing with other health care staff. Whats better - we can always read his orders! Legibly written, clear in format and detailed in terms... all this with a legible signature, name and call number for reference look up!

Can we say "WOW!" ??? :D

We can and we DO!! "WOW!!!!" :lol2:

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Overall my experience with our group has been good. They are competent, caring, and well educated. One left, his ego was just too big to be here. He was such a handsome man, so well educated, so wealthy and refined he needed to be somewhere he was appreciated (his words exactly). I guess he found what he was looking for in Mississippi cause West Virginia sure was not for him. LOL!

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I don't know what I'd do without 'em, they're always there when I need a doctor, and fast, too.

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Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

I am an APN and I work for a nephrology group. When I get a consult and contact the hospitalist to find out what they want, the hospitalists are fantastic: polite, concise, to the point and unfailingly polite. I work at 5 hospitals and all but one have hospitalists and intensivists (MDs that run the ICUs). They are wonderful.

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