Military inpatient work: "hospitalist" equivalent?

[Pemberley]

Hi everybody --

I've been gradually, in a dim pre-med sort of way, learning bits and pieces about jobs and settings in health care...

I have gathered that, traditionally, primary care providers rounded on their patients who were in hospital, but recently many urban centers have been switching to a "hospitalist" system, in which doctors who are dedicated to an ICU or PICU take responsibility for a patient from admit to discharge.

1) Have I understood all that correctly?
2) What does the military do? Does it assign people to the major hospitals as the equivalent of hospitalists?

I'm particularly interested in Naval pediatric information, but the odds are good that any-service, any-patient-age information you have to give will be helpful.

Thanks!
Pemberley

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[Homunculus]

Hi everybody --

I've been gradually, in a dim pre-med sort of way, learning bits and pieces about jobs and settings in health care...

I have gathered that, traditionally, primary care providers rounded on their patients who were in hospital, but recently many urban centers have been switching to a "hospitalist" system, in which doctors who are dedicated to an ICU or PICU take responsibility for a patient from admit to discharge.

1) Have I understood all that correctly?
2) What does the military do? Does it assign people to the major hospitals as the equivalent of hospitalists?

I'm particularly interested in Naval pediatric information, but the odds are good that any-service, any-patient-age information you have to give will be helpful.

Thanks!
Pemberley

howdy. at our combined army/navy (and now AF) program, there are no "hospitalists". all the pediatricians cover clinic duties and occasionally the ward. even at non-gme sites, you will be seeing both clinic have your inpt coverage (either you or your colleagues) as well.

so the short answer is no, as of now there is no peds hospitalist model (that i'm aware of) in use. however, i don't see it being out of the realm of possibility to volunteer to cover the ward all the time while your buddies cover clinic. you could functionally be a hospitalist then i guess, but you'd have to justify this to the bean counters when your RVU's are all inpt. . . .

--your friendly neighborhood well child physical administering caveman

 

[Homunculus]

it appears i may not have answered your question completely. while the above is the case, the system here is that if you "admit" a pt to the ward, you do not follow them day-to-day-- the residents and current inpt attending do.

at outside gme sites, you see clinic, admit, and follow through discharge (as far as i know).

hopefully someone else can shed some light on this-- i'm not quite there yet (and may not be there anytime soon if i can pull off getting a fellowship . .)

--your friendly neighborhood post padding caveman

 

[Mirror Form]

I have gathered that, traditionally, primary care providers rounded on their patients who were in hospital, but recently many urban centers have been switching to a "hospitalist" system, in which doctors who are dedicated to an ICU or PICU take responsibility for a patient from admit to discharge.

1) Have I understood all that correctly?

Pretty close. Typically the doctors covering the ICU's are not hospitalists, but are fellowship trained critical care doc's. Hospitalists are usually non-fellowship trained Internal Medicine doctors who have decided, as you said, to take responsibility for the patients admitted to the hospital from admission to discharge.

This recent switch to hospitalist systems has lead to improved care for patients and is probably going to be the trend in the future as medical fields becomes more and more specialized.

2) What does the military do? Does it assign people to the major hospitals as the equivalent of hospitalists?

You already got your answer about peds. The same thing basically goes for internal medicine. All of the IM docs I know at medical centers work both in the clinics and on the inpatient wards.

 

[island doc]

Hospitalists are the best things since sliced bread. Thanks to them I have an 8-5 Monday through Friday job. No more middle of the night phone calls from nurses or midnight trips to the ER or ICU. Hospitalists: I love you!!