hospitalist?

[maia]

uh, what's a "hospitalist" doc?

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[sven]

uh, what's a "hospitalist" doc?

I could well be wrong, but I think it referrs to a salaried doc that's on hospital staff vs. one in private practice who cares for patients in hospital only when they're his/hers.

 

[liverotcod]

http://www.hospitalist.net/

 

[PMinty44]

I could well be wrong, but I think it referrs to a salaried doc that's on hospital staff vs. one in private practice who cares for patients in hospital only when they're his/hers.

A Hospitalist is the point-physician, the person who is ultimately responsible for coordinating the care of an inpatient. S/he may consult with other specialties (neuro, psych, etc), but in the end s/he is the person responsible for following-up with the patient's care. Many hospitals are turning to these docs, especially after disasters such as the one that happened at Boston Children's Hospital a few years ago (an inpatient died basically because no one from the team of doctors took ultimate reponsibility...I don't know the details, but according to my PI, it was a simple "I-thought-someone-else-was-doing-it" issue).

 

[MadameLULU]

I believe all hospitalists are internists

 

[Ross434]

uh, what's a "hospitalist" doc?

Hospitalist is where the money is at when it comes to internal medicine physicians. I believe they're going to be the wave of the future (and we'll see more mid level's doing outpatient care). Hospitalists are anyone who works exclusively in a hospital. However, they are not always employed by the hospital. They can be employed by managed care, or by physician groups. They basically do rounds all day and continue the treatment of inpatients who have been admitted by other docs (mostly im). They typically have less stressful jobs and work less hours, but, often, they miss out on the continuity of care that a more traditional IM doc gets to experience.