Hospitalist
Hospitalists are "physicians who are employed to work exclusively in hospital settings, primarily for managed care organizations. They are the attending or primary responsible physician for the patient during hospitalization."[1]
Hospitalists may provide more efficient care of patients in the hospital than primary care physicians.[2] Hospitalists may perform more procedures than other primary care physicians.[3]
There may, however, be inefficiencies in continuity of care and transfer of information among hospitalists and community primary physicians. Other problems may occur when the hospitalist refers a patient to a specialist, possibly following hospitalization, and either there is no "medical home" primary physician, the community primary physician is not aware of the hospitalist's thinking in the referral, or if the consultant report goes to the hospitalist rather than the community physician.
References
- ↑ National Library of Medicine (2008). Hospitalists. Retrieved on 2008-01-04.
- ↑ Lindenauer PK, Rothberg MB, Pekow PS, Kenwood C, Benjamin EM, Auerbach AD (2007). "Outcomes of care by hospitalists, general internists, and family physicians". N. Engl. J. Med. 357 (25): 2589–600. DOI:10.1056/NEJMsa067735. PMID 18094379. Research Blogging.
- ↑ Thakkar R, Wright SM, Alguire P, Wigton RS, Boonyasai RT (2010). "Procedures performed by hospitalist and non-hospitalist general internists.". J Gen Intern Med 25 (5): 448-52. DOI:10.1007/s11606-010-1284-2. PMID 20195784. Research Blogging.