Hospitalist Program |
According to the Society of Hospital Medicine, hospital medicine is the fastest growing medical specialty in the U.S., with an estimated 8,000 hospitalists practicing today. Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Cleburne has begun a hospitalist program to further manage and coordinate all aspects of patient care.
When a patient is admitted, a primary care physician can choose to turn over care to a hospitalist, a physician who specializes in caring for patients in the hospital. The hospitalist acts as an extension of the primary care provider and communicates with the primary care physician to maintain continuity and quality of care. Once a patient is discharged, he or she returns to the primary physician for follow-up care.
Because a hospitalist only works with inpatients, he or she sees the same kind of cases more often than the physicians who are non-hospital based. This experience can be beneficial in diagnosing and treating patients who are admitted to the hospital with more severe or less common illnesses. In addition, a hospitalist can facilitate close communication among a patient's interdisciplinary health care team.
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