A hospitalist is a physician who practices inside of the hospital unlike a traditional primary care physician which has an outpatient office. Hospitalists are responsible for managing care of patients inside of the hospital who spend the night with us. We're the primary point of contact, not only for the patient and the patient's family, but also nursing care, as well as any specialist that may be consulted. So it is the hospitalist's responsibility to coordinate and see the bigger picture in relation to the patient's stay and overall health.
A big part of that management is communicating with the outpatient primary care provider. The benefit of being in a community hospital is we have firsthand experience and we've met these primary care physicians so we can give each other a phone call, a touch base on their patient, and then when the patient is ready to go home and be discharged, it is the responsibility of the hospitalist to write a discharge summary, and it relays all the information, including any medication changes, any imaging findings or pertinent follow ups that get sent directly to their primary care physician. I chose
to become a hospitalist because I love meeting with patients. I love seeing the bigger picture. It's the relationships that you build in a community hospital. We're often seeing the same patients multiple times because they're members of our community, which helps me feel more involved with where I live.
