Recent inquiries by local physicians prompted Newman Regional Health to look into a program many hospitals have started participating in — a hospitalist program.
During last week’s Board of Trustees meeting at Newman, a representative from QHR (Quorum Health Resources) presented information on the program. According to a PowerPoint presentation by QHR, a hospitalist is “a physician whose primary professional (responsibility) is the medical care of hospitalized patients.” A hospitalist is a subspecialty of internal medicine. Essentially, a hospitalist directs and manages a patient who is hospitalized and reports back to the primary care physician.
The benefits of having a hospitalist program include the 24-hour availability of the hospitalists and their ability to manage more difficult patients whose cases require care around the clock. The hospitalist can respond quickly to acute symptoms or new test results. They also can allow primary care physicians to increase their availability in the office, reducing their time in the hospital. Hospitalists can treat unassigned patients, have more availability and offer better coordination for end-of-life care, according to QHR.
Hospitalists may reduce the average length of stay and costs. According to a recent study, patient days were reduced by .4 days.
“Point-four days of stay may not seem that much,” said Terry Lambert, chief executive officer of Newman Regional Health. “But it is.”
Lambert said it’s a bit premature to say Newman is considering the program; however, the hospital is looking into it.
“It’s just something that a lot of hospitals around the country are doing,” Lambert said. “Our board has certainty not made any decisions ... this was something that was requested by our local doctors. They came to us and asked us to look at this. They saw this as something to help them out.”
Lambert said the Emporia area has a lot of good physicians.
“I want to stress, too, that we have great internal medicine and family practice physicians in the community and we want to do what we can to keep them in Emporia.”
It’s not just about keeping physicians in Emporia, it’s also about attracting them.
“Oftentimes when trying to recruit, (doctors) ask if they have a hospitalist program,” Lambert said.
Lambert said Newman will be speaking individually with Emporia physicians to see what the consensus is about having a hospitalist program.
“The board wanted us to talk to all the physicians individually,” he said. “We’ll be, in the next month or so, going around to the different offices and see if doctors would look at it. There’s definitely pros and cons with this.”
Some of the cons include extra costs.
“You’re probably going to pay more for this program than you’re going to collect from the patients,” Lambert said. “But there’s a lot of indirect benefits.”
wanderer (anonymous) says...
I wish they could find a different name for this. "Hospitalist" sounds like a political movement.
April 4, 2008 at 8:14 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )