 | Dr. Francie Ekengren is Wesley Medical Center’s chief medical officer and medical director for the emergency department at Wesley. She can be reached by e-mail at francie.ekengren@wesleymc.com. Wesley has recently begun a hospitalist traineeship program to help meet the country’s future need for more hospitalists. |
Health & Medicine
2006-03-01 12:58:00
What is a hospitalist?
ANSWER: If a hospital stay is in your future, don’t be surprised if you’re cared for by a kind of doctor you’ve never heard of: a hospitalist.Unlike traditional doctors, this new type of physician doesn’t see patients away from a hospital. In fact, the hospitalist’s responsibility is to care for hospitalized patients from admission to discharge—hence the name.Although the public may not yet be aware of hospitalists, these specialists belong to the fastest-growing field in medicine. Five years ago there were only a few hundred hospitalists in the entire country. Today, there are as many as 12,000 practicing hospitalists, and it’s plausible that within a decade every hospital will have at least one hospitalist on staff.Typically hired directly by hospitals, these doctors practice exclusively on site, ordering appropriate diagnostic tests, monitoring patients’ conditions, making treatment decisions with input from primary care doctors and coordinating patient care among members of the hospital staff. Their surge in popularity is fueled by several factors:· Hospitalists—most of whom are either trained as internists or pediatricians—become especially skilled at treating health problems common among hospitalized patients, such as pneumonia, infections, heart attacks and congestive heart failure.· Hospitalists are readily available to their patients. Because they are hospital-based, they generally can respond quickly whenever a patient or family member has a question or concern. This contrasts with traditional doctors who often see their hospitalized patients only during morning or evening rounds. · Because they are near their patient’s bedside, hospitalists can recognize and react quickly to any changes in their patient’s condition—a real advantage.A growing body of research suggests that hospitalists improve the overall quality of patient care. There have been more than 100 studies published on the impact of hospitalists, and the results are generally quite positive. Most studies show that hospitalists help reduce the risk of medical errors, reduce the length of patient stays and reduce hospital costs.
