Creating the Hospital of the Future: The Implications for Hospital-Focused Physician Practice

In 1996, as the growth in managed care increased the role for general internists and primary care physicians, the term hospitalist was coined.

Many medical specialties are adopting a hospital-focused model of practice, and that trend is changing the essence of health care delivery in the inpatient setting. The nature of hospital-based medicine is evolving to include surgical hospitalists, neurological hospitalists, ob-gyn hospitalists, orthopedic hospitalists and others. To that end, the AHA's Physician Leadership Forum, together with the Society of Hospital Medicine, held a half-day session in July 2012 to understand the impact of hospital-focused medicine on the delivery of care.

PLF has published a report summarizing the discussion of the half-day session. It examaines the first 16 years of hospital medicine, the expansion of specialty hospitalists, the impact of hospital-based practice on the delivery of care and discusses how hospital-focused physician practice can lead to better operational performance and safer hospital care.

Registration is required to download this report.