Yesterday’s New York Times ran a story about the rise of hospitalists in health care. The physician profiled works at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, where she splits her time between patient care and information technology.
In this age of accountability and quality assurance, having a specialist just for hospitalized patients will certainly help patient outcomes and increase efficiency. Another benefit of being a hospitalist that the article does not mention is the attraction of having a predictable schedule.
On the negative side, I wonder how hospitalists can advance their careers in an academic medical center. Do they have time to reflect on their work and produce scholarship? Are they documenting the teaching they do? It’s still a relatively new track in departments of medicine, so it is worth watching to see how those faculty develop professionally.