How do patients benefit from a hospitalist care?
• Hospitalists work as a team to be available to their patients 24 hours a day. • A patient’s hospital care path is a fluid and often unpredictable process of decision making. The hospitalists are available to make these decisions throughout the day. They rapidly follow up on test results, discuss the case with specialists, examine the patient’s response to treatment, and adjust the treatment as needed. This prevents frustrating and idle waiting by the patient and hastens a smooth and speedy recovery. • Should an emergency or a change in the patient’s condition arise, a member of the hospital team is always available. • The hospitalist is more accessible to address the questions and concerns of patients or their families. In the traditional model, patients are typically visited only once a day by their personal physician, usually in the evening. • By taking care of the hospitalized patients, hospitalists allow the primary care doctors to be more available for office visits. • Spending
