Care, Healing, and Efficiency: Why Patients and Administrators Love Hospitalists

While a patient cannot expect to see their personal physician during an unexpected hospital stay, they can expect to see a type of medical doctor they may not even know exists: the hospitalist. Hospitalists care for patients from the moment their case begins, interact with them throughout their stay, and plan for their care during and sometimes beyond their hospital release. Unlike a patient’s personal internist, the hospitalist acts as a medical doctor, project manager, communication link, and care planner. 

The hospitalist’s unusual job creates benefits that stretch into myriad aspects of a patient’s case: tending to patients’ physical needs during their hospital visit with immediate, up-to-the-minute oversight that the internist cannot imitate and being an active patient advocate during their stay, something that patients without family particularly need. A hospitalist is the informational caretaker for patients, their families, and the medical team involved in their care. Hospitalists ensure the availability of up-to-the-minute patient information from and to the medical team by utilizing predictive electronic medical record (EMR) software, which notifies all medical parties of current and potential situations impacting the patient.

Why hospitalists are invaluable to patients and families

Stress impacts the speed of a patient’s return to health, but it is just one of the problems ameliorated by the role of a hospitalist physician.

Open Source MD’s 2024 article, The Heart of the Hospital: How the Hospitalist Role is Evolving in 2025 and Beyond, makes the unequivocal claim that the hospitalist benefits patients in ways currently unreachable by other means:

• Centralized care management.  Hospitalists streamline oversight and decision-making within the hospital setting.
• Enhanced operational efficiency.Patient care is more efficient since hospitalists dedicate their attention to in-hospital treatment.
• Improved team coordination. Communication among care teams is more cohesive when hospitalists manage coordination and provide clinical direction.
• Elevated care quality. The quality of care improves due to faster decision-making and enhanced collaboration among in-hospital specialists. 

It’s crucial not to underestimate the impact of hospitalist physicians on patient care. The advocacy of patient needs, improvement in the quality of coordinated intra-specialty care, and the attention to care from the hospital stay to post-discharge care are services not seen before the advent of the hospitalist. Additionally, the hospitalist provides an extraordinary emotional bridge for patients who find themselves suffering from the anxiety of a hospital stay. The consistency of patient interaction creates a bond of trust that impacts the nature and speed of recovery.

For the patient’s family, this specialized medical professional is the answer to communication frustrations of the past. Rather than spend hours tracking down all the medical personnel involved in a family member’s care, the hospitalist serves as a single point of contact that provides the full scope of information available at any point. Additionally, when follow-up short-term care is necessary, the hospitalist can ensure that the patient is cared for outside the hospital system for up to 30 days.

As a type of project manager for the patient’s oversight and working with families and multidisciplinary team members, the hospitalist has a bird’s-eye view and an up-close-and-personal understanding of the ebb and flow of a patient’s health and state of mind during a stay. For families, knowing that this 360-degree care is proactively available to their loved ones around the clock reduces their worries and increases their ability to be of informational assistance to the doctor and be a calm and loving influence on the patient. Hospitalists are available 24/7, with some working in the hospital and others working from home, providing around-the-clock oversight.

Ameliorating the natural health and financial dangers of extended hospital stays

Ironically, when patients enter a hospital, they face increased exposure to any illnesses already present. Many hygienic and planning approaches, including hospitalist oversight, are taken to minimize this risk for each patient. Their interest in reducing length of stay (LOS) for every patient is based primarily on concern for patient wellness and secondarily on accrued expenses for all concerned when a stay extends due to complications. Reducing patients’ LOS reduces exposure to other strains of illness present in the hospital and potential complications. Additionally, keeping the team on task as a single informational body reduces the chances of medical record errors.

While health is the most urgent need of any patient, concern for financial fallout quickly follows. Patient, family, and hospital administration share this concern. The American Hospital Association acknowledges that “[E]conomy-wide inflation grew by 12.4% between 2021 and 2023, more than double the 5.2% growth in Medicare reimbursement for hospital inpatient care. This makes it harder for hospitals to maintain access to care and invest in…cutting-edge treatment.” This is when hospitalists create a solution that a patient’s internist simply cannot—walking that line between patient care, family adviser, health planner, and financial caretaker, and delving further into innovative hospital-oriented approaches than any other system.

In its article Hospitalists Driving LOS Optimization, The Hospitalist cites this uniquely positioned medical professional as the primary reason for significant improvements in LOS. It acknowledges the hospitalist as the core force for “the health care value equation: value equals quality plus service (measured by metrics such as outcomes and patient experience) divided by cost (both direct and indirect) and then multiplied by appropriateness (right place, right time, right patient, and right context).” 

Hospitalists’ role in hospital ratings

As in any business, measurements of efforts and results are taken to ensure that high-quality care is met and maintained. In addition to LOS and hospital-acquired infections, key performance indicators (KPIs) include readmission and mortality rates, all considered in measuring positive and negative results for patient care.

The Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) conducts surveys, the scores of which are public, allowing hospital-to-hospital comparison. A high HCAHPS score means sustained high status in the medical community, increased patient trust, and remaining in business. More opportunities exist to miss essential communications and insights into medically necessary signposts without hospitalists, their software, and medical oversight management.

Driving hospital revenue

Open Source MD highlights another area of financial savings: improving clinical documentation integrity (CDI). “The effect that CDI has on sustainable net patient revenue while minimizing payer denials and costly financial recoupments is often underestimated…. [D]enials cost American hospitals hundreds of millions of dollars a year. A hospitalist service that is well-trained in clinical documentation best practices can make a marked difference to hospital revenues through the capture and accurate reflection of a patient’s clinical story and severity of illness. Physicians who can tell a patient’s medical story well and clearly outline the treatment progression are the key to getting the approvals you seek.” The hospitalist quickly becomes an expert on each patient’s short- and long-term needs, and using the EMR software, can look beyond the current needs and tell a clear patient treatment story.

Adjusting to this relatively new hospitalist benefit

Hospitalists play a pivotal role in enhancing communication, improving patient outcomes, and optimizing hospital efficiency, all of which directly impact operational performance and financial sustainability. For these reasons, it is essential to proactively support hospitalists by addressing issues like workload distribution, burnout prevention, and alignment with strategic goals. Investing in the growth and development of hospitalists is no longer optional. It is essential to the long-term resilience and success of the healthcare system. By prioritizing these efforts, administrators can strengthen their organization’s ability to deliver high-quality, cost-effective care in an increasingly complex healthcare environment.