Hospital care has a new potential hazard — the “hospitalist”

Are you being treated by one of these rent-a-docs?

They call them “Hospitalists.” Notice they don’t call them doctors or caretakers or advocates. And that’s no accident.

Because a “hospitalist” isn’t really there for you. He’s there to manage your hospital stay with the institution’s best interests in mind.

And he’s doing it in place of your own doctor.

Paging Doctor Whomever

Like there isn’t enough stress and worry about going into the hospital. All the tests, needles, machines — and the surgery.

Now they’ve adding one more thing to worry about: someone you’ve never seen before…someone who doesn’t know you, your family or your history…being put in charge.

This is your hospitalist. And he’ll be “organizing” your care — instead of your primary care doc.

Whatever happened to those days of seeing your own doctor on daily rounds?

To hear it described in “perfect world” terms, your hospitalist is on your side. He looks out for you, schedules tests, gets status reports to your family, makes sure your meds are there if you need them, etc.

Well — it looks good on paper.

But in real life, most hospitalists are going to be hamstrung at every turn by hospital bureaucracy. That’s because they’re actually PART of the bureaucracy. When it comes to legal concerns, insurance rules and regs, and who the heck knows what else with Obamacare looming, how will they ever have time to actually take care of you?

There’s just no way they can give you the specific attention that you would get from a specialist.

That was glaringly obvious in a recent study. It found that patients with heart failure were more likely to die when treated by a hospitalist rather than their cardiac specialist.

To some extent, you might be able to make an end run around these drawbacks when you’re planning a surgery or hospital stay. To avoid being blindsided, talk to your specialist or primary care doc and find out how involved they’ll be with your care.

And if you have special needs — like daily supplements or dietary concerns — make sure those are clearly understood by everyone before you’re admitted.

Sources:
“Hospitalists No Panacea for HF” Todd Neale, Medpage Today, 9/12/13, medpagetoday.com