PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Vandad Yousefi AU - Rafal Maslowski TI - Health system drivers of hospital medicine in Canada DP - 2013 Jul 01 TA - Canadian Family Physician PG - 762--767 VI - 59 IP - 7 4099 - http://www.cfp.ca/content/59/7/762.short 4100 - http://www.cfp.ca/content/59/7/762.full SO - Can Fam Physician2013 Jul 01; 59 AB - Objective To identify the underlying systemic drivers of the development and ongoing expansion of hospitalist programs in Canada. Data sources MEDLINE and Google Scholar were searched using combinations of the terms hospitalist, hospital medicine, and Canada. Study selection All publications that addressed the study question, including review articles, original research, editorials, commentaries, and letters or news articles, were included in the review. Synthesis Constant comparative methodology was used to analyze and code the articles and to synthesize the identified codes into broader themes. Three broad categories were identified: physician-related drivers, health system–related drivers, and patient-related drivers. Within each category, we identified a number of drivers. Conclusion Many drivers have been cited in the literature as reasons behind the emergence and growth of the hospitalist model in the Canadian health care system. While their interplay makes simple cause-and-effect conclusions difficult, these drivers demonstrate that hospitalist programs in Canada have developed in response to a complex set of provider, system, and patient factors.