In-hospital MDs take pressure off physicians

[NRSKarenRN]

found at:healthleaders media

in-hospital mds take pressure off physicians

boston globe, oct. 30, 2006

hospitalists are members of the fastest-growing medical specialty in the country. they work exclusively in the hospital and do not have their own community or family practices outside the hospital walls. the job of these dedicated inpatient physicians is to make sure patients are getting the right treatment and tests, help patients and families understand what is happening, and make sure patients do not stay in the hospital longer than necessary.

[CritterLover, BSN, RN]

i'm not sure about other facilities but here, only unreferred or patients that have doctors with no admitting priviledges are admitted to the hospitalists.

i think she is getting at how some physicians choose not to have hospital priviledges, preferring instead to see patients in their clinics and let the hospitalists see patients in the hospital.

i know that would irritate me -- if i had a physician that i knew/trusted, but had to see someone else in while in the hospital. however, the hospitalists i've worked with in the past have truely been excellent, and in many ways can dance circles around some of the pcps that i work with now. i often wish that some of them would give up the hospital aspect of their practices and let hospitalists take over. (the small hospital i work at now doesn't have hospitalists).

i think hospitals like them because they "dot their i's and cross their t's...." meaning that they follow the rules as far as consults, charting, paperwork, cms guidelines.......less of a headache for administration.

when i lived in arizona, i had a doctor who used hospitalists for her in-patients. she theorized that a one point in her career, she happily followed her patients through wellness checks and hospitalizations. but now, with hmos (that part of arizona was heavy with hmos), when people changed jobs, or jobs changed insurances, they often changed their doctors out of necessity. she was no longer having a continuity of care with most of her patients, anyway. so she let the hospitalists see her patients in the hospital, so she could spend time with her patients in the clinic.

[SillyLilly]

This is the first time I am hearing about hospitalists.

If I ever went to medical school (not likely) I would probably become a hospitalist.