Background: Although point-of-care ultrasound can improve patient care and reduce unnecessary downstream costs, few economic models exist on hospitalist use and whether remuneration for imaging could offset equipment costs.  As the heart and lungs are commonly examined during admission, we observed the frequency of use and projected fiscal outcomes of point-of-care cardiac ultrasound by an [...]

Background: Although point-of-care ultrasound can improve patient care and reduce unnecessary downstream costs, few economic models exist on hospitalist use and whether remuneration for imaging could offset equipment costs.  As the heart and lungs are commonly examined during admission, we observed the frequency of use and projected fiscal outcomes of point-of-care cardiac ultrasound by an [...]

Background: Patient evaluation of satisfaction with their physician has been utilized for several years and is now being included as a parameter utilized to calculate reimbursement. Despite the routine use of these evaluations by most hospitals and agencies, little research has been done to evaluate the metrics of patient evaluations. We sought to assess whether [...]

Background: Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) program requirements for family medicine permit wide variability in adult inpatient medicine curricula. Family physicians compose a significant percentage of the hospitalist workforce, and the American Board of Family Medicine co-sponsors the Recognition of Focused Practice in Hospital Medicine. Previously published survey data describe certain residency characteristics [...]

Background: Prior research in the field of academic hospital medicine has used promotion as the measure of success, but little is understood about what motivates individual academic hospitalists or how individuals define career success. Conceptual models of career success from outside healthcare emphasize Compensation, Advancement, Career Satisfaction and Job Satisfaction. This study sought to explore [...]

Background: One key factor cited in physician burnout discussion is the rigid block scheduling that has become ubiquitous for Hospital Medicine. For years, nursing has allowed self-scheduling to improve work life balance and abate burnout with good success per the literature. Recent commentary by leaders in Hospital Medicine has piqued the interest in further evaluation [...]

Background:   Congestive heart failure (CHF) and pneumonia are amongst the leading causes of hospitalization in the United States.  Although a growing number of hospitals use both teaching and nonteaching hospitalist services for patient care, the differences in clinical outcomes and efficiency between these two services is not clearly known. The aim of this study [...]

Background: Many pediatric hospitalist programs in community hospitals around the country function with a 24-hour shift model for 24/7 coverage. This creates significant discontinuity and daily inefficiencies in patient care. Furthermore, there is a robust amount of adult literature that points to the benefits of both inpatient and outpatient continuity of care. When our community [...]

Background: Current staffing models cannot deliver the benefits of hospital medicine to the 1300 critical access hospitals (CAHs) located throughout the rural United States.   Staffing each CAH with local hospitalists would require at least 5500 hospitalists (more than 10% of the workforce), to cover less than 2% of the hospitalized population.   A “virtual hospitalist” program [...]

Background: Patients admitted to inpatient hospital services are increasingly cared for by hospitalists rather than their primary care providers. When transitioning from hospital-based to ambulatory care, suboptimal information transfer can lead to serious adverse events and readmissions; therefore, demands for timely preparation of high-quality discharge summaries are increasing. Confronted with these demands, most hospitalists are [...]