Hospitalists improve care, slash costs
By Karen Jorge
The New York Times just ran an interesting article on hospitals’ increasing use of hospitalists. These specialists, as a sort of “physician-administrator,” handle cases in the hospital from admission to discharge, and can significantly reduce length of stay (from 17 percent to 30 percent) and costs (13 percent to 20 percent) according to The Journal of the American Medical Association. They are also focusing on improving communication with patients, which is crucial not only to patient satisfaction, but also to preventing readmission through confusion about medications or other instructions.
Perhaps the most exciting part of the uptick in hospitalist use is that many of these specialists are intentionally working toward controlling costs and making workflows more efficient. We often see a disconnect between physicians and the finance/performance improvement folks, but all parties need to work together in order to tackle these issues. I was thrilled to see the article discuss hospitalists’ focus on “preventable adverse events,” “cost-effective delivery of care” (yes!), teamwork, and making decisions for cost-cutting. Great!
Too often there is a struggle between how physicians want to practice medicine and how finance teams want to control costs. Both have worthy goals, but they’ve got to work together, and it appears that if hospitalists are used effectively, they might provide a bridge between the two to deliver better care at a lower cost.
Karen Jorge is an HMC analyst.
