Hospital medicine is a medical specialty dedicated to providing comprehensive medical care to hospitalized patients. Hospitalists (physicians who specialize in hospital medicine) manage and treat a significant range of complex and comorbid (diseases or medical conditions that are simultaneously present in a patient) disease conditions.
What Is a Hospitalist?
Hospitalists often are trained in general internal medicine. A hospitalist is a physician that serves as your main doctor while you are hospitalized. The hospitalist manages your overall care and is part of a team of healthcare workers who provide comprehensive care to you from admission to discharge.
In addition to managing the clinical problems of acutely ill, hospitalized patients, hospitalists are responsible for the following:
- Managing day-to-day care and providing prompt and complete attention to all patient care needs including diagnosis, treatment and the performance of medical procedures (within their scope of practice)
- Following appropriate processes and techniques to make the hospital a safer place, reduce hospital-acquired infections and improve patient outcomes
- Facilitating collaboration, communication and coordination with all physicians, healthcare personnel and care team members caring for hospitalized patients
- Providing safe transitions of care within the hospital and at discharge to the patient’s home or other care facility
Through these practices, hospitalists provide efficient care delivery and improve clinical outcomes, reduce mortality rates, enhance care coordination, prevent hospital-acquired infections and facilitate comprehensive transitions of care.
The hospitalist’s extensive clinical experience in caring for some of the most complex medically ill patients, as well as the hospitalist’s focus on providing patient-centered care, helps to provide safer, higher quality care for hospitalized patients.
Our hospitalists are here to provide you with high-quality, evidence-based (applying the best available and well-researched treatments) and patient-centered care, so you and your loved ones can be sure you are in good hands while at Phelps Health Hospital.