In recent years there has been a development of a new medical specialty know as a hospitalist.
These doctors practice medicine only in hospitals.
They care for the very ill patients after they are admitted and throughout their stay in the hospital.
Hospitalist programs have become commonplace are very appropriate, desirable and improve quality of care.
Most hospitalists are highly qualified physicians who posses the technical training and experience for the job of more severe acute treatment required of most hospitalized patients.
To characterize hospitalists as inexperienced rookies is oversimplified and misleading.
There is something to be said for continuity of care and familiarity with clients.
Primary care and family physicians are not shut out but encouraged to be part of the team providing input for the hospitalized patient.
Good communication between PCP and Hospitalist is beneficial for inpatient as well as the follow-up care after hospitalization.
However the reality of practice is most PCP's gladly defer to the hospitalist because of the time and skills they have to manage the more severely ill patient.
From a broader perspective most people of any age, through a lifetime, rarely need surgery or hospitalization.
The large majority of health care is provided as an outpatient in the office setting.
Allowing the primary care physician to stay in the office providing more availability to their patients creates greater efficiencies in health care delivery and likely improves quality especially on the inpatient side.
This need not be any different than referring to any other specialist to participate in the overall care of a client.
The family doctor can still participate in the coordination of care and medical decision making.
However the primary responsibility falls on the shoulders of the more technically skilled hospitalist for acute in-patient medicine.
It's a win-win situation.