What is a hospitalist?
Hospitalists are physicians whose primary professional focus is the general medical care of hospitalized patients. Their activities include patient care, teaching research and leadership related to hospital medicine.
What are the advantages of being a hospitalist?
Medical Professional Job Satisfaction
- Flexible schedules = better work-life balance
- Diverse and complex patient population = more intellectual challenges
- Active promotion of research opportunities = ability to build reputation in research
- Opportunities in resident education = ability to design and develop academic careers
What opportunities does the Department of Hospital Medicine offer?
- Hospital Medicine Fellowship: A one- to two-year fellowship that develops clinical, teaching and research skills to excel as an academic hospitalist
- Day time hospitalist: Staff position that builds clinical expertise and provides intellectual challenges within a collegial atmosphere
- Nocturnist: Staff position with shift-based evening and night clinical coverage for physicians who prefer to have well-defined schedules and free daytime hours
What job responsibilities does a day time hospitalist have?
Clinical Responsibilities:
- Provides high quality efficient care to adult hospitalized patients
- Performs medical consultations for surgical and psychiatric patients
- Discusses findings with patients and colleagues and initiates treatment plans
- Evaluates patients undergoing non-cardiac surgery
- Assesses preoperative risks
- Optimizes chronic conditions
- Prepares evidence-based recommendations for patients, anesthesiologists and surgical teams
- Coordinates internal medicine subspecialty care
Academic Responsibilities:
- Educates students, residents and fellows in inpatient and perioperative care
- Participates in academic conferences
- Collaborates with students, residents and fellows in preparing posters and publications for local, regional and national venues
- Provides leadership for medical school and residency program activities
Operational Responsibilities:
- Provides support and direction to the management process for patients
- Optimizes short stay models and care pathways to facilitate effective patient flow
- Ensures that medical care is provided in a safe, timely and efficient manner
- Sets up effective liaison with administrative, medical and nursing staff to facilitate prompt medical management
What job responsibilities does a nocturnist have?
Clinical Responsibilities:
- Provides high quality efficient care to existing hospitalized patients during night hours
- Admits new patients from the ED, from physician offices, or newly arrived hospital transfers during night hours
- Provides concise sign-outs in verbal and written form to the daytime triage officer for patients admitted overnight
- Assists moonlighting residents and fellows with issues requiring staff level input
Operational Responsibilities:
- Ensures that patients admitted overnight have the appropriate disposition for their level of acuity (i.e. floor, telemetry, ICU)
- Ensures that patients admitted overnight have a concisely documented care plan in the electronic chart and in sharepoint, and that this care plan is conveyed to daytime physicians
- Identify areas of improvement in the night coverage process and potential solutions to make these areas safer, and more efficient and effective