Executive Briefing: Specialty Hospitalists
creasing the satisfaction of physicians who have privileges at the
hospital and also have private
practices. Another advantage is
that the hospital can ensure a
specialist is always accessible
to ED patients. Contracting specialty hospitalists also acts as an
effective tool for recruiting private
practice physicians. Specialty
hospitalists can help reduce the
number of hours physicians with
privileges have to be on-call at
the ED, allowing the physicians
to concentrate on their practices,
says Kurt Ehlert, national medical
director for orthopedic surgery at
Delphi of TeamHealth.
While specialists in private practice sometimes resist the idea
of bringing in specialty hospitalists, the resistance evaporates
once they see the benefits, says
Andrew Lin, national medical director for OB-GYN services at
Delphi of TeamHealth. Some of
5 Benefits of
Specialty Hospitalists
1. Remove burden of ED calls.
2. llow physicians more
A
personal time.
3. elp physicians ensure
H
better care for patients.
4. ll physicians to focus on
A
their primary interests.
5. elp combat physician
H
shortages.
Orthopedic Hospitalists Always On-Call
Ground-breaking programs that take the call burden off Orthopedists.
888.741.7925 | teamhealth.com
49
them are afraid of facing competition, and some are wary of losing revenue from not being on-call
in the ED, but these fears end up
being largely unfounded, says Dr.
Ehlert.
There are five key ways in which
specialty hospitalists help private
practice physicians, and this can
help hospitals recruit and retain
them:
1. Remove the burden of ED
calls. "Specialty hospitalists help
private physicians by relieving
them of the burden of ED calls,
which can be very unpredictable,"
says Mr. Krumanocker. They can
focus on their own practices and
scheduled surgeries without worrying about responding to an ED
call, which usually allows them to
grow their own practice. "Most private practices experience overall
growth after being relieved of ED
calls," adds Mr. Krumanocker.
