Today, the level of integration between physicians and hospitals rises, and the best integration models should be learned and understood. One of the best is the hospitalist model, which sets the complete responsibility of one physician under one patient. It enables high-level care and satisfaction and a much quicker recovery. The integration, in general, has benefits in better organization of physicians and efficient exchange of knowledge, experience, and medical technologies; the hospitalist model is well-fitted for this integration.
It aims to appoint the particular physician for the responsibility for the specific inpatient, or several of them. This model is beneficial for several reasons:
- it ensures that each patient will be under the care, improving its quality;
- it provides all physicians with actual work;
- it is more profitable for hospitals in general (Harrison, 2010).
The hospitalist model reduces the average stay length almost twice: from 11.9 to 6.5 days (Harrison, 2010, p. 136). Its profitability comes from the fact that the medical care will be more thorough and, thus, will be paid more by a larger number of patients. Dougan, Montori, and Carlson’s (2016) research about implementing the hospitalist model in Iowa hospitals shows the drastic increase in satisfaction both among patients and physicians, as they are always provided with work. As patients are more satisfied, they are willing to pay more, increasing the clinic’s profits; in addition, more patients tend to visit such clinics where they know they are under care. It enables to reduce the price for healthcare, which is beneficial for the population as a whole.
The integration between the physician and hospital is part of improving a healthcare system. While before the 1990s, physicians and clinics usually worked separately, each of them performing their roles, the integration started to rise actively since this time (Harrison, 2010). The advance of modern technologies, mainly digital ones, promoted the growth of cooperation and patient-hospital integration. It increases the quality of care and ensures better collaboration and workflow organization between physicians and clinics. It means, for example, the knowledge and technology exchange: when one physician has some experience, they can share it based on a clinic (Harrison, 2010). It helps to monitor physicians’ work performance and helps them work more efficiently (Abdulsalam, Gopalakrishnan, Maltz, & Schneller, 2018). The hospitalist model is perfectly suited for growing physician-hospital integration, providing an efficient workflow to increase the satisfaction of both physicians and their patients. It promotes cooperation between physicians, as they should decide who and when will be responsible for the particular patient.
However, there are some limitations and drawbacks associated with the hospitalist model. Firstly, this model is mainly adapted for large hospitals with an extensive network of physicians. Small hospitals sometimes cannot manage the workload necessary to maintain the hospitalist model (Harrison, 2010). It requires that there are enough physicians as each of them should be responsible for a limited number of patients. In addition, the research of Dougan, Montori, and Carlson (2016) did not interview the clinic nurses and other inpatient staff except physicians. There is a lack of studies on the hospitalist healthcare model, as it is primarily new. Thus, it is understudied, and those research gaps need to be filled to understand when and how it can be better implemented.
As one can conclude, hospital-physician integration is an essential modern trend. The hospitalist integration model facilitates the best conditions for both hospital and patient, enabling them to provide the highest level of healthcare. It is ideally suited for increased integration between hospitals and physicians, as it promotes cooperation between physicians and improves their efficiency. However, it is understudied and can have drawbacks when applied in small hospitals with limited staff numbers. They may not coordinate such loaded workflows required by a system where each physician is fully responsible for one patient. Despite that, the hospitalist model is very beneficial; while it can be modified in each particular hospital case, its implementation would increase the efficiency of the healthcare system in total.
References
Abdulsalam, Y., Gopalakrishnan, M., Maltz, A., & Schneller, E. (2018). The impact of physician-hospital integration on hospital supply management. Journal of Operations Management, 57(1), 11–22. Web.
Dougan, B. M., Montori, V. M., & Carlson, K. W. (2016). Implementing a hospitalist program in a critical access hospital. The Journal of Rural Health, 34(1), 109–115. Web.
Harrison, J. P. (2010). Essentials of strategic planning in healthcare (1st ed.). Chicago, Illinois: Health Administration Press.