About Us
A hospitalist specializes in the care of hospitalized patients. Our hospitalists are Cleveland Clinic board-certified internal medicine specialists who have additional training or experience in caring for hospitalized patients. They do not see outpatients, nor do they continue caring for hospitalized patients after they leave the hospital, but they communicate closely with your outpatient physician(s) at admission, during your hospital stay, and at discharge to ensure that your primary care physician is engaged in planning your care in the hospital.
The emerging field of Hospital Medicine has made inpatient care more efficient for hospitalized patients as well as their primary care doctors. For years, physicians cared for patients in their offices, and then juggled their schedules to travel to the hospital to check on any patients whom they had admitted.
The program is staffed by Cleveland Clinic staff physicians and will consist of one day time and one night time service. There will be no difference in the level of service provided on weekdays and weekends. There is 24/7 coverage.
Our mission
The mission of Cleveland Clinic’s Department of Hospital Medicine is to provide compassionate, world class, evidence based quality inpatient and perioperative care. We serve as educators to the next generation of hospital based providers, perform research to advance the field of hospital medicine, and strive to deliver an outstanding patient experience in all phases of care.
FAQ
Who will care for me if I am admitted to the main campus of Cleveland Clinic, Fairview Hospital, Hillcrest Hospital or Medina Hospital?
Physicians dedicated to Hospital Medicine can direct all inpatient care once patients are admitted to the hospital, keeping primary care physicians fully informed of their progress. This streamlined arrangement allows physicians to focus their full attention on their patients in their office practice, while the hospitalist devotes their full attention to patients admitted to the hospital.
This creates a win-win situation. It puts patients first, and optimizes care. That’s why our dedicated Cleveland Clinic hospitalists work with the best physician for the type of problem that brings you to the hospital.
Will my doctor continue to care for me when I leave the hospital?
Yes. Your medical care when you are not in the hospital will not change in any way. In fact, the hospitalist program should help your physician be more available for your urgent and routine care needs in his or her office. Once discharged, your doctor will perform complete follow up care to make sure your recovery is progressing. Your doctor will help arrange for appropriate care with other physicians if necessary.
What are the advantages of the hospitalist program?
Most importantly, a hospitalist has extensive experience and expertise in the medical conditions requiring your hospitalization and in navigating the systems of care; in other words, how to get things done in the hospital. Additionally, because hospitalists do not need to rush back to the office to see other patients, they are in the hospital all day to answer your questions or your family’s questions, check on test results and meet and consult with the other physicians who may be participating in your care.
Why is Cleveland Clinic using a hospitalist program?
Many primary care physicians in the area and across the country have decided to fully dedicate themselves to their office practice. They have started to utilize a hospitalist system, working with physicians who specialize in taking care of hospitalized patients. Cleveland Clinic has used this approach since 1997, with excellent patient experience.
Chairman's Message
Welcome to the Department of Hospital Medicine. I have been privileged to be a part of the Cleveland Clinic for 12 years and to serve as department chairman since 2010. We have grown from 13 physicians when I joined Cleveland Clinic in 2001 to 82 physicians today, and we continue to grow and develop amazingly talented hospital providers. Just last year we hired 31 new physicians for our four sites and we continue to plan strategically for future hospital care at both the Main Campus and at our community hospitals in Northeast Ohio.
At the main campus of Cleveland Clinic, we have 15 inpatient internal medicine services; eight teaching services (where resident physicians and students rotate); and seven staff-only services. In addition we provide general medical consultation services to surgical and medical subspecialty colleagues, and staff a dedicated orthopaedic co-management service. These services have staff level care and supervision seven days a week, and staff is available 24 hours a day for urgent assessment.
In addition we provide outpatient preoperative internal medicine assessments at the IMPACT (Internal Medicine Preoperative Assessment, Consult and Treatment) Center, where we ensure that patients are thoroughly assessed medically and prepared for upcoming surgical procedures.
We provide clinical care at three of our outstanding community hospitals: Hillcrest, Fairview, and Medina, and we are leaders in quality of care, resource utilization, and leveraging the electronic medical record to deliver this top notch care at each of our sites. These sites continue to grow and develop; hospitalists deliver care seven days per week in all sites, and 24 hours per day at Fairview Hospital and Medina Hospital.
We are proud educators and steward the education of internal medicine residents and students from the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine and from numerous other schools in Ohio and beyond. In addition we have one of the first hospital medicine postgraduate fellowships in the country, and we continue to innovate in newer educational models of care, leveraging problem based curricula and online learning tools.
If you require care with us in the hospital, we aspire to treat you with cutting edge clinical knowledge, compassion, and concern, as we know that hospitalization is a challenging life event. If you aspire to join our team, we welcome you to explore our exciting career opportunities.
Sincerely
Christopher Whinney, MD, FACP, FHM
Chair- Hospital Medicine
IMPACT Center
The Internal Medicine Preoperative Assessment, Consultation and Treatment Center (IMPACT) at Cleveland Clinic was established in 1997 and is staffed by the Department of Hospital Medicine. It is one of the leading centers in the country in perioperative care. The main purpose of the IMPACT center is to carefully evaluate patients prior to their surgery and optimize their medical conditions. This helps to minimize the risk of developing complications during and immediately after surgery as well as minimize unnecessary cancellation of surgeries.
We evaluated close to 16,000 patients in 2012. Patients are referred by surgeons from more than 10 different specialties at Cleveland Clinic.
The following are the components of the IMPACT clinic:
- Evaluate patients undergoing non-cardiac surgery.
- Assess and outline perioperative risks.
- Optimize all chronic medical conditions.
- Order appropriate testing to optimize medical conditions before surgery.
- Coordinate care between specialists preoperatively for complex medical conditions.
- Make evidence-based recommendations for patients, the anesthesiologists and the surgical team (related to both pre and post-operative periods).
This systematic approach has helped us prepare patients for upcoming surgery, deliver quality care, eliminate unnecessary testing and improve overall surgical outcomes to all of our patients.
Blood Management
The Department of Hospital Medicine at Cleveland Clinic has been an important contributor to the institution's Blood Management Program.
This program has been nationally recognized by the Joint Commission as well as the Society of Hospital Medicine.
Several current members of the Department of Hospital Medicine belong to Cleveland Clinic Transfusion Task Force, which oversees the pre-surgical optimization of anemic patients undergoing, primarily orthopaedic, colorectal and gynecologic surgeries.
This optimization consists of the evaluation of the cause of anemia, through identifying hematinic deficiencies with subsequent preoperative replacement to provide substrate for hematopoiesis. These efforts in addition to a conservative transfusional approach have resulted in a substantial decrease in intraoperative and postoperative allogeneic blood transfusions with improvement in patients outcomes.
In addition, the hospitalists of Cleveland Clinic Transfusional Task Force are current leaders in national and international education in preoperative anemia optimization and parsimonious blood utilization.
For Medical Professionals
Education
The Department of Hospital Medicine is committed to excellence in education in the teaching of our physician leaders of tomorrow.
The Department of Hospital Medicine prides itself on being made up of outstanding clinician-educators who play a key role in serving as teachers and role models for the 168 residents in our internal medicine training program, as well as for the students of the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University, and a variety of other medical students rotating through the institution.
A number of our physicians hold joint positions in both the medical school and the internal medicine residency program. Many of our physicians are involved in other curricular roles, such as serving as preceptors in the residency program’s ‘Resident as Teacher’ program and acting as facilitators for the medical school’s problem-based learning curriculum.
Department physicians serve at any given time as attending physicians on six to seven of the eight general medicine inpatient services, a rotation viewed by both the residents and the residency program as foundational to the residents’ development as clinicians. The medicine consult service is also led by hospitalist staff.
The Department of Hospital Medicine is also committed to helping its physicians become outstanding clinicians, as well as leaders in quality improvement, patient safety, teamwork and hospital administration. To this end the Department offers weekly grand rounds targeting high-yield clinical topics, a recurring core curriculum series focused on key areas ranging from literature searching to professionalism, and a variety of case conferences. Hospital medicine physicians are also actively encouraged to further develop their teaching skills and expertise through participation in courses offered by Cleveland Clinic’s Education Institute. Our overarching goal is to promote a robust milieu of clinical excellence, collegiality and commitment to life-long learning and growth.
Career opportunities
The Department of Hospital Medicine is seeking board certified/eligible physicians who will be teachers and role models for the 168 residents in our internal medicine training program, as well as for the students of the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University, and a variety of other medical students rotating through the institution.
For more information, or if you have questions, please contact Lauren Forst at 216.448.8201.
