Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Wachter on the state of the hospitalist movement

I’m always interested in what Robert Wachter, hospitalist thought leader, has to say on the state of the field. He was recently interviewed by Internal Medicine World Report. Points of interest:

Rise of hospitalists and decline of primary care: true, true and unrelated in Wachter’s opinion. Not sure I agree.

How many hospitalists are needed? 30,000 to 50,000, perhaps, more than previously estimated.

What makes the difference between a good program and a bad one? Communication---with families and primary care docs.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

In my local community ( Southern New Hampshire...there have been at least 14 physicians that I know directly that left primary care internal medicine and went into local hospitalists programs. No doubt about it there is a huge effect on primary care manpower with hopsitalists programs opening up everywhere.