The hospital admits patients for observation if they need treatment but their conditions aren’t urgent or serious enough to warrant inpatient admission. Patient stays under observation are considered outpatient stays. Physicians follow up with patients in observation as soon as possible — which can sometimes be 12 or 16 hours later, according to the report.
However, according to an email Crain’s obtained from the hospital’s CMO Alan Loren, MD, many physicians are not seeing patients for 24 hours after they are admitted for observation. Northwest Community Hospital’s new policy shortens the observation period to four hours maximum, to help more patients have access to care and improve the patient experience, according to the report.
According to Crain’s, this move has received some backlash from physicians.
“Many of us perceive it as an attempt by the hospital to grab patients from us,” Jim Faulkner, MD, told Crain’s.
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