Dearborn County Hospital will start a Hospitalist Program for inpatient care beginning on Wednesday, October 16. The program will bring four new physicians to DCH and provide for around-the-clock onsite care.
A hospitalist is a physician whose practice is dedicated entirely to providing care for patients while they are hospitalized. Hospitalists do not have offices in the community, rather they partner to work cooperatively with and are in touch with area primary care physicians and specialists to oversee and coordinate care for patients during periods of hospitalization.
During the patient’s hospital stay, hospitalists will consult and communicate with the patient’s personal primary care physician on a regular basis, in order to better care for the patient’s overall needs. Upon the patient’s discharge, their personal physician will resume providing care.
“Hospitalists are utilized in all Cincinnati hospitals and in fact, most facilities throughout the country,” explained Roger D. Howard, DCH President/CEO. “With the rapidly increasing number of regulations and new developments in healthcare today, it is difficult for physicians to keep abreast of all the changes. Hospitalists make it possible for primary care physicians to concentrate on office based medicine, allowing them to care for more patients.”
“There is a shortage of primary care physicians now and it will become worse in the near future,” continued Mr. Howard. “Currently, the majority of primary care physicians looking to start a new practice or relocate their existing practice want to refer to and work with a hospital that has a hospitalist program. By partnering with the hospitalists for inpatient care, DCH and the community derive two major benefits. First, it helps our primary care physicians to better address the community’s needs by increasing the number of available office appointments. Secondly, it allows DCH to be more competitive in the recruitment of top flight primary care physicians.
To learn more about the DCH Hospitalist Program, please visit the hospital’s website at www.dch.org.
