Are inpatients’ needs better served by hospitalists than by their family doctors

I found the debate on hospitalists 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 myself and others in my community is the lack of communication with respect to our hospitalized patients. I was hoping that having hospitalists who are also family physicians would improve this situation. Unfortunately, at my hospital, I have not experienced receiving telephone calls from hospitalists to share information about our patients. We, who know our patients the 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 that proved unhelpful. As the patient was unable to give 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 thus saved her from undergoing those tests.

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