New Wave Medicine

A new type of medical practice emerged in the late 1990's which consisted of physicians specializing in inpatient hospital practice.These physicians are commonly known as “hospitalists."This specialty has been growing rapidly and now numbers over 4,000.

A group of ER physicians at Christus St. Frances Cabrini Hospital in Alexandria started the first local hospitalist program in late 2004.This program has been steadily growing in popularity and patient population since that time.The impetus for formation of this program was initially to streamline the admission of patients from the emergency room by having doctors expressly dedicated to this task.This type of practice also has other advantages to both patients and physicians that use hospitalists to care for their inpatients.

Patients in the doctor's office can benefit from the extra time their doctor can spend with them because they do not have to take time to go to the hospital.Patients in the emergency room can benefit from shorter admission waiting times that continuous admitting physician availability can provide.Patients in the hospital can benefit from increased communication with their treating hospitalist due to his focus on inpatient care as the hospitalist doesn't have to rush through hospital rounds in order to see an office filled with waiting patients.Patients also can expect shorter hospital stays due to the intensive, hands on type care a hospitalist can provide.This type of care can also better coordinate care decreasing the number of potentially unnecessary and risky tests performed.Patients also can have access to hospitals that their physician may not practice at, giving them more choices of inpatient care locations.

Hospitalists are predominantly graduates of internal medicine programs which provide the most intense and varied training with a focus on inpatient care.Patients can benefit from this type of expertise while in the hospital.All these factors would seem to provide a brighter future for care of hospitalized patients.

Dr. Lamartinere is a Hospitalist with Southern Inpatient Specialists.

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