Hospital medicine is a relatively new specialty that focuses on the care of patients within the hospital. Hospital medicine, like emergency medicine, is a specialty organized around a site of care (the hospital), rather than an organ (like cardiology), a disease (like oncology), or a patient’s age (like pediatrics). Hospitalists help manage a patient’s care throughout their entire hospital experience. They see patients in the ER, admit them as an inpatient, and follow them as necessary through critical care or other units, arrange for appropriate outpatient care, or direct the patient to an alternative place of care (i.e. subacute rehabilitation facility).

These days, patients need intense support and the hospitalist program increases the availability of physicians throughout the day. Nurses and other ancillary care staff find hospitalists are more available to respond to emergencies or other issues that may arise with their patients. Instead of visiting a patient once per day, a hospitalist is available to see a patient many times during the day as conditions require. Under this program, it is not necessary for the hospital staff to call a primary care physician’s office, wait for a return call, or wait until after office hours for the patient to be visited by the doctor.

The hospitalist program also improves access for other patients by allowing primary care physicians to focus on office visits without being called away or making daily rounds at multiple hospitals and nursing homes. Dreyer physicians who are not based in the hospital have additional appointment times available and have a better opportunity to stay on schedule with shorter waiting room times.

For more information, please see the full article, Hospitalists Improve Patient Care, by Dr. Lisa Groskopf.

Click here for a list of Dreyer's Hospitalists.

Click here for a list of Dreyer's Nursing Home Rounding Physicians.