Primary care physicians, especially those who are part of an HMO don’t have time any more to go to the hospital for one…but the hand off is very important as well as good records. The article references transitions, but if records are all kept up to date in real time, they all they need to do is read, and communication with the primary MD when leaving the hospital is also very important, talking and communicating as well as good records. BD
Williams notes that hospitalists need to address any “disruption of the physician-patient relationship” by communicating well with primary care docs. But if communication is strong, “then the advantage of having a hospitalists readily available and rapidly responding to changes in a patient’s status, test results, and consultant recommendations more than offsets the shortcomings of physician discontinuity.”
http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2008/06/23/do-hospitalists-improve-hospital-stays-or-increase-risk/
0 comments :
Post a Comment