Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsProcedural ExpertiseSubspecialtiesTraining and CertificationAppointment TipsSeeing a Hospitalist
Table of ContentsView All
View All
Table of Contents
Procedural Expertise
Subspecialties
Training and Certification
Appointment Tips
Seeing a Hospitalist
A hospitalist is a subspecialty of physician who treats patients solely in a hospital. Hospitalists practice what is known as hospital medicine, a medical specialty centered on the care of acutely ill hospitalized patients.
Hospitalists do not maintain outside practices but provide exclusive care to patients during their hospital stay. This improves the oversight and consistency of care for patients while providing a timely response outside of your primary doctor’s usual hospital rounds (times when doctors visit their patients who are admitted to hospitals).
Hospitalists areattending physiciansresponsible for drawing up a treatment plan and the patient’s overall care, from admission to discharge. Hospitalists may intervene if needed but are essentially on call to address a patient’s immediate medical needs.
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Concentrations
The overriding role of a hospitalist is to improve the quality of care of hospitalized patients. Doing so can reduce the length of a hospital stay, the cost of hospitalization, and the rate of hospital readmission.
Hospitalists serve as generalists, meaning they possess the education, experience, and certification to appropriately address the general medical needs of patients regardless of their condition. If there is an issue outside of the scope of the physician’s practice, a specialist will be called in.
A hospitalist is not a “second-string” doctor but a fully qualified physician who simply prefers to practice in a hospital setting. Once a patient isdischarged, a hospitalist no longer participates in that patient’s ongoing care other than to consult with the primary physician during the transition.
Some patients appear to benefit from hospitalist care, including people requiring extensive physical rehabilitation. Most studies suggest that hands-on, physician-led oversight appears to speed recuperation.
Most hospitalists are trained and board-certified ininternal medicine(branch of medicine concerned with the medical care of adults), although some come from other fields of medicine, such as family practice or pediatrics (branch of medicine concerned with the medical care of children).
As part of the hospital system, a hospitalist is responsible for improving—and sometimes tracking and measuring—the quality of patient care. They are not involved with cost management, budgets, or medical reimbursements, tasks typically assigned to the hospital administrator. Rather, their role is centered purely around patients' needs.
Depending on the size of the hospital, hospitalists will sometimes take on a specialist role. This is especially true of doctors who enter the profession from fields such as surgery, neurology (branch of medicine concerned with disorders of the nervous system),cardiology(branch of medicine concerned with disorders of the heart and blood vessels), or pediatrics.
Hospital medicine is constantly evolving and finding new and better ways to utilize a doctor’s skills. To this end, there is an ever-widening range of subspecialties a hospitalist may choose to pursue, including:
As with all physicians, hospitalists must complete a four-year bachelor’s degree plus four years of medical school to obtain their medical degree.Thereafter, the hospitalist candidate must complete several years of graduate medical education (GME), which includes a one-year internship and three years ofresidency training.
Some residency programs have developed instructional tracks that address the key facets of hospital medicine, including quality assessment/quality improvement (QA/QI) and the transition of care from inpatient to outpatient.
In addition to ABHM certification, theAmerican Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM)offers certification programs to obtain the Focused Practice in Hospital Medicine (FPHM) designation.
Hospitalists are there as physicians when admitted patients need them, especially hospitalists considered rounders, who are doctors dedicated exclusively to patients in beds. You don’t need to schedule an appointment. If you have a medical problem that the nursing staff is unable to address, you can request to speak to the hospitalist on duty.
A Word From Verywell
Being a hospitalist requires empathy, compassion, flexibility, experience, interpersonal skills, and stamina to deal with an ever-changing roster of medical conditions and personalities. It’s not uncommon for patients to say that hospitalists are the staff members that seem to offer them the most comfort and reassurance during their hospital stay.
4 Sources
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Palabindala V, Abdul salim S.Era of hospitalists. J Community Hosp Intern Med Perspect. 2018;8(1):16-20. doi:10.1080/20009666.2017.1415102Pinzur, M.; Gurza, E.; Kristopaitis, T. et al.Hospitalist-orthopedic co-management of high-risk patients undergoing lower extremity reconstruction surgery.Orthopedics.2009 Jul;32(7):495. doi:10.3928/01477447-20090527-14.Salim SA, Elmaraezy A, Pamarthy A, Thongprayoon C, Cheungpasitporn W, Palabindala V.Impact of hospitalists on the efficiency of inpatient care and patient satisfaction: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J Community Hosp Intern Med Perspect. 2019;9(2):121-134. doi:10.1080/20009666.2019.1591901Sara Royster.Hospitalist.Career Outlook,U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Palabindala V, Abdul salim S.Era of hospitalists. J Community Hosp Intern Med Perspect. 2018;8(1):16-20. doi:10.1080/20009666.2017.1415102
Pinzur, M.; Gurza, E.; Kristopaitis, T. et al.Hospitalist-orthopedic co-management of high-risk patients undergoing lower extremity reconstruction surgery.Orthopedics.2009 Jul;32(7):495. doi:10.3928/01477447-20090527-14.
Salim SA, Elmaraezy A, Pamarthy A, Thongprayoon C, Cheungpasitporn W, Palabindala V.Impact of hospitalists on the efficiency of inpatient care and patient satisfaction: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J Community Hosp Intern Med Perspect. 2019;9(2):121-134. doi:10.1080/20009666.2019.1591901
Sara Royster.Hospitalist.Career Outlook,U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Wachter RM, Goldman L.The emerging role of “hospitalists” in the American health care system.N Engl J Med.1996;335:514-517. doi:10.1056/NEJM199608153350713
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