Amy Goliszek, hospitalist division practice manager at The Exigence Group, shares three best practices for a successful hospitalist program.
1. Ensure programs meet medical staff's needs. A key benefit of a hospitalist program is that it frees up a hospital's medical staff and primary care physicians' time. Hospitalists provide care for a physician's admitted patients and for unreferred patients admitted through the ER that medical staff would traditionally be required to care for. This allows physicians to see more patients in their offices and, in the case of surgeons, allows them to perform more surgeries, says Ms. Goliszek.
Freeing up time for physicians helps drive physician satisfaction and can help a hospital maintain or grow referrals. However, in order to truly drive satisfaction, hospitalist programs must be tailored to medical staff needs, says Ms. Goliszek. For example, neurosurgeons at Erie County Medical Center in Buffalo, N.Y., commonly perform complex surgeries on patients with traumatic brain injuries. After surgery, these patients are in the trauma ICU for many days and in the past had stayed on a physician's service during their entire stay. However, The Exigence Group has since developed a hospitalist program in partnership with the hospital and its medical staff that allows the neurosurgeon to transfer a patient's care to hospitalists after the patient is stable but while the patient is still in the ICU, which allows the surgeon to focus on additional patients, says Ms. Goliszek.
"Because of this program, we were able to reduce the length of stay for these patients by multiple days," she says.
2. Build support from primary care physicians for the program. Some primary care physicians fear a loss in income by transferring their patients to hospitalists' care and giving away inpatient time. However, Ms. Goliszek says that primary care physicians typically find they become more efficient by seeing more patients in their office.
"Instead of spending time tending to hospitalized patients, hospitalists allow primaries to treat more patients in their office and spend more time doing other things that could grow income, such as offering ancillary services," she says.
Hospital leaders considering a hospital program should build consensus among primary care providers for the program by sharing information about efficiency and other benefits before establishing any program.
3. If outsourcing multiple departments, consider using one source for these services. Finally, Ms. Goliszek recommends hospitals outsourcing multiple departments, such as the ER, ICU and hospitalist services, consider using one company for all programs.
"Whether the hospital's goal is improving patient satisfaction, getting patients from the ER up to the floor more quickly or improving or maintaining other benchmarks, one group can more easily align the departments and ensure that they are working together to meet and exceed the hospital's goals," she says.
Learn more about The Exigence Group.
1. Ensure programs meet medical staff's needs. A key benefit of a hospitalist program is that it frees up a hospital's medical staff and primary care physicians' time. Hospitalists provide care for a physician's admitted patients and for unreferred patients admitted through the ER that medical staff would traditionally be required to care for. This allows physicians to see more patients in their offices and, in the case of surgeons, allows them to perform more surgeries, says Ms. Goliszek.
Freeing up time for physicians helps drive physician satisfaction and can help a hospital maintain or grow referrals. However, in order to truly drive satisfaction, hospitalist programs must be tailored to medical staff needs, says Ms. Goliszek. For example, neurosurgeons at Erie County Medical Center in Buffalo, N.Y., commonly perform complex surgeries on patients with traumatic brain injuries. After surgery, these patients are in the trauma ICU for many days and in the past had stayed on a physician's service during their entire stay. However, The Exigence Group has since developed a hospitalist program in partnership with the hospital and its medical staff that allows the neurosurgeon to transfer a patient's care to hospitalists after the patient is stable but while the patient is still in the ICU, which allows the surgeon to focus on additional patients, says Ms. Goliszek.
"Because of this program, we were able to reduce the length of stay for these patients by multiple days," she says.
2. Build support from primary care physicians for the program. Some primary care physicians fear a loss in income by transferring their patients to hospitalists' care and giving away inpatient time. However, Ms. Goliszek says that primary care physicians typically find they become more efficient by seeing more patients in their office.
"Instead of spending time tending to hospitalized patients, hospitalists allow primaries to treat more patients in their office and spend more time doing other things that could grow income, such as offering ancillary services," she says.
Hospital leaders considering a hospital program should build consensus among primary care providers for the program by sharing information about efficiency and other benefits before establishing any program.
3. If outsourcing multiple departments, consider using one source for these services. Finally, Ms. Goliszek recommends hospitals outsourcing multiple departments, such as the ER, ICU and hospitalist services, consider using one company for all programs.
"Whether the hospital's goal is improving patient satisfaction, getting patients from the ER up to the floor more quickly or improving or maintaining other benchmarks, one group can more easily align the departments and ensure that they are working together to meet and exceed the hospital's goals," she says.
Learn more about The Exigence Group.