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COPYRIGHT 2004 International Medical News Group
Inpatient medicine is becoming a victim of its own success.
Hospitalist programs are setting up faster than physicians can join them, and recruiters around the country are rushing to fill the empty slots.
In a survey of 3,000 hospitals, the American Hospital Association found that at least 1,200 had hospitalist programs, employing 10,000 physicians. Because not all hospitals were surveyed, the Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM) believes that the number of programs could be as high as 1,800.
Hospitalists "have proved that they can provide better care and reduce medical errors, and reduce length of stay and resource costs," and that's why they are popular right now, Larry Wellikson, M.D., SHM's chief executive officer, said in an interview.
Hospitalist programs often fail to appreciate how fast the workload can grow, said John Nelson, M.D., director of the hospitalist program at Overlake Hospital Medical Center, Bellevue, Wash.
"Every time we think we have enough doctors, the work expands and before we know it, we're looking for more," Dr.Nelson told this newspaper. The Overlake program, established in the spring of 2000, has grown from four to eight hospitalists and is now recruiting two or three more. "Initial volume of new patient...
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