The Surgical Hospitalist

The hospitalist role continues to evolve...and specialize...with the shortage of general surgeons emerging...BD 

Our surgical hospitalists station themselves in the hospital for a week at a time. For that hellish week, they are constantly available to the emergency department for consults. As a result, the average time between an ED consult request and their appearance in the ED was I hope youre sitting down 16 minutes. Heck, I didn't know the elevators were that fast! The ED docs and nurses were nearly euphoric with this responsiveness.

What are the downsides? I do worry about burnout – our surgical hospitalists seem to be in the hospital all the time – but Dr. Maa assures me that he and his compadres catch their breath during their non-hospitalist weeks (two weeks in three, spent in office practice and on academic pursuits), that they love what their doing, and that they enjoy the warm afterglow of a job well done. More importantly, they’ve added four new surgeons to the group this year, so things may work out.

Wachter's World : The Surgical Hospitalist

Hat Tip:  Kevin, MD