Inpatient Called Handled By Internal Medicine?

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

Llenroc

Bandidos Motorcycle Club
10+ Year Member
5+ Year Member
15+ Year Member
Joined
Dec 25, 2004
Messages
1,514
Reaction score
7
My uncle works in the rehab field and was telling me about the setup on his acute inpatient rehab unit. The physiatrist takes no call and doesn't round on weekends. The call is handled by an Internal Medicine hospitalist. :thumbup:

I also know of another guy in another part of the country who does inpatient/outpatient. He says his call is also handled by someone else.

How typical are these kinds of setups?

Members don't see this ad.
 
My mentor here takes home call one weekend per month, while the hospitalist there is there in-house I believe. Doesnt sound like he gets called much at all, as he said the hospitalist usually handles everything, he just gets notified for the most part is what it sounds like.
 
At the very least, it seems appropriate (although not how it works at MY program). Anything that comes up during the night is most certainly NOT a rehab issue, so is more adeptly handled by medicine.
 
Members don't see this ad :)
This is the beauty of private practice community rehab! These arrangements are very typical especially where there is an in-house hospitalist service. Usually, the rehab nurses will call the physiatrist first and if it appears to be something that requires IM to handle, the physiatrist gets IM/hospitalist on board.

Also, unlike academic medicine, you will never get static for getting a consult. The hospitalists will come RUNNING to see your patient and be grateful for the opportunity to make a little easy $$.
 
When I did private inpt, I never had this benefit - covered myself, only physiatrist in town, 24/7/365. That's a big part of why stopped it.
 
I think that arrangement is fairly common. I've seen it at many community hospitals.

At UCI, our PGY4 inpatient rotations are at a large community hospital. We recently downsized our rehab unit a little, but we still have 42 beds. Every patient on the unit has an "internal medicine consultant" who follows peripherally. The patients who get admitted tend to be pretty sick, and it is great to have an internal med backup for when the medical problems get hairy.
 
My uncle works in the rehab field and was telling me about the setup on his acute inpatient rehab unit. The physiatrist takes no call and doesn't round on weekends. The call is handled by an Internal Medicine hospitalist. :thumbup:

I also know of another guy in another part of the country who does inpatient/outpatient. He says his call is also handled by someone else.

How typical are these kinds of setups?

Very common.. but one of the things to be careful of is you have to scratch their backs with your referrals to them. While that sounds simple, keep in mind that other groups may want to get in so sometimes it is hard to keep everyone happy.

From a more global perspective while this is fine from my point of view, I do get concerned that internal med and/or other consultants get over-utilized at rehabs, ltac's, snf's, etc. in large part because of these types of arrangements. This can drive costs up. Not everyone needs an IM consult.
 
Top