Open dialogue

I found the debate on hospitalists1,2 interesting. Unfortunately, it is a rather irrelevant issue for those of us practising in urban areas. Family physicians have not been looking after inpatients at my community hospital for years and I do not see that changing in the future.

A more relevant issue for me and others in my community is the lack of communication between physicians with respect to our hospitalized patients. I was hoping that having hospitalists who were also family physicians would improve this situation. Unfortunately, at my hospital, I do not receive telephone calls from hospitalists to share information about our joint patients. We family physicians, who know our patients best, are rarely, if ever, contacted to discuss issues of concern. For example, I had an elderly dysphasic patient admitted to our hospital several months ago. She underwent numerous unnecessary tests, which proved unhelpful. As the patient was unable to provide a good history, it would have made sense to call me for background information. I would have informed the attending hospitalist of the chronicity of her problems and saved the patient from undergoing those tests.

Having family physician hospitalists can be advantageous, but only if they communicate with their community brethren.

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