subject: Memphis Tn Hospitals The Ever Changing Hospital [print this page] Twenty years ago, the idea of a doctor caring for people only when they're hospitalized was far-fetched. Today, hospitalists are the fastest growing medical specialty. These doctors who manage much of the care that goes on in hospitals.
Almost 15 years ago, the term "hospitalist" was coined to describe inpatient specialists in the
practice of medicine. At that time, hospitalists numbered fewer than 1,000. Today, the Society of
Hospital Medicine (SHM) estimates that 31,000 physicians practice hospital medicine, making it the fastest growing physician specialty in history.
Before hospitalists, primary care doctors had to attend to their patients when they were hospitalized. They would often rush into the hospital first thing in the morning, then rush back to their office and see patients for the rest of the day.
Most hospitalists do a residency in internal medicine. When that's finished, they can work as a hospitalist without having to go through years of additional training.
Given the dynamic nature of the healthcare field, the hospitalist movement's rapid evolution is not surprising. More than ever before, issues such as quality improvement, patient safety and efficiency rank high on many executives' priority lists-and hospitalists are uniquely poised to help address these issues.
Hospitalists develop a skillset based on continuous exposure to acutely ill, hospitalized patients. They are also familiar with the way patients move through their hospital and the impact of hospital processes, procedures, rules and regulations on patient flow." Furthermore, hospitalists offer value in ways that ultimately affect a hospital's provision of care as well as financial and strategic goals. As the hospitalist movement continues to gain momentum, healthcare organizations with robust programs are leveraging their hospitalists' expertise and range of knowledge. Following are ways top hospitalist programs have ensured their success.
When patients are sent home, hospitalists try to make sure patients know exactly what to do. They also communicate with the patient's primary care doctor, to make sure nothing falls through the cracks.
Health care reform's direction is how do we improve the efficiency of care while maintaining or improving quality, and hospitalists is one great tool for doing that. With hospitalists, a medical center can coordinate the care better, provide patients with a shorter length of stay in the hospital, and yet keep their quality up. And that's exactly what healthcare reform is trying to accomplish.
Studies show hospitalists reduce the length of hospital stays by up to 30 percent. They also help cut costs.
