A New Face in The Hospital
There's a new face on staff in a lot of hospitals nowadays. We're all familiar with 'attending physicians' and 'nurses' and 'nurses aides' and 'orderlies' but have you ever heard of a 'hospitalist'? You probably have not but more and more hospital groups are turning to hospitalist groups. The new face on the staff is the hospitalist. So, what is it that makes a hospitalist so unique?
Up until recent years, hospitals basically have had two primary positions that took care of the patient; three positions, if you counted the orderlies. The two main positions were 'attending physicians' and 'nurses'. That being said, what has happened recently is that hospitals have been forced to adjust their operating policies to enable better decision making, accountability and efficiency at the lowest, everyday level. The professional hospitalists helps make this happen.
A hospitalist is a doctor with all the same qualifications as any of the other doctors who practice medicine in the hospital. The difference is that the hospitalist has chosen to work strictly in the hospital rather than have a practice outside the confines hospital and do all the things that practicing physicians have done in the past.
They have chosen not to make house calls, not to have to worry about the expense of running a small business and office, not to have to worry about insurance, not to have to worry about marketing or any other number of things. They come to work at the hospital and they do their job day in and day out - and that is that.
But they went to the same kind of medical schools; they studied the same types of subjects; they took the same kinds of tests; they incurred the same kind of costs; and they have the same kind of license to practice medicine.
Their value comes into play in several different areas. One such area is that they're in the hospital all day, every day. On the other hand the attending physician only comes to the hospital to visit their patients maybe once a day - the hospitalist is there all the time. What this means is that the patient has the benefit of a licensed physician in close proximity at all times, should their presence be required.
Another function they serve is that they're better able to coordinate other aspects of the patient's care when different doctors are involved; they also serve as contacts for nurses, therapists and family members. They're also better able to authenticate patient condition updates for the record.
One more thing they can help with is that when patient tests come back, the doctor, because they are a licensed physician, is able to make immediate decisions on issues of medication and subsequent testing or therapy.
Hospitalist groups are becoming more and more common. Many people think that in the near future hospitalist group will be the normal way hospitals are staffed. Today the concept of the hospitalist group is slowly but surely changing the face of primary medical care. There's no doubt that the idea is working well.
Up until recent years, hospitals basically have had two primary positions that took care of the patient; three positions, if you counted the orderlies. The two main positions were 'attending physicians' and 'nurses'. That being said, what has happened recently is that hospitals have been forced to adjust their operating policies to enable better decision making, accountability and efficiency at the lowest, everyday level. The professional hospitalists helps make this happen.
A hospitalist is a doctor with all the same qualifications as any of the other doctors who practice medicine in the hospital. The difference is that the hospitalist has chosen to work strictly in the hospital rather than have a practice outside the confines hospital and do all the things that practicing physicians have done in the past.
They have chosen not to make house calls, not to have to worry about the expense of running a small business and office, not to have to worry about insurance, not to have to worry about marketing or any other number of things. They come to work at the hospital and they do their job day in and day out - and that is that.
But they went to the same kind of medical schools; they studied the same types of subjects; they took the same kinds of tests; they incurred the same kind of costs; and they have the same kind of license to practice medicine.
Their value comes into play in several different areas. One such area is that they're in the hospital all day, every day. On the other hand the attending physician only comes to the hospital to visit their patients maybe once a day - the hospitalist is there all the time. What this means is that the patient has the benefit of a licensed physician in close proximity at all times, should their presence be required.
Another function they serve is that they're better able to coordinate other aspects of the patient's care when different doctors are involved; they also serve as contacts for nurses, therapists and family members. They're also better able to authenticate patient condition updates for the record.
One more thing they can help with is that when patient tests come back, the doctor, because they are a licensed physician, is able to make immediate decisions on issues of medication and subsequent testing or therapy.
Hospitalist groups are becoming more and more common. Many people think that in the near future hospitalist group will be the normal way hospitals are staffed. Today the concept of the hospitalist group is slowly but surely changing the face of primary medical care. There's no doubt that the idea is working well.
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