Hospitalists

Hospitalists will collaborate with your primary care provider to share information about your hospitalization and the type of follow-up care needed.

What a Hospitalist Does — and Who They Work With

The team of hospitalists helps with everything concerning your care while you’re staying in the hospital, including specialist care, case management, and social work.

Specialists treat serious medical conditions when they are referred by your physician. If you have kidney problems, the hospitalist may collaborate with a nephrologist to develop a treatment plan. Similarly, if you have heart problems, a cardiologist may be called in to help with your treatment.

This is why hospitalists coordinate other services, such as social work and case management, into the inpatient care team.

Working with Case Managers

Case managers deal with your medical needs leading up to and after you are discharged from the hospital. For instance, your case manager may:

Identify discharge planning needs and initiate referrals to other professionals.
Collaborate with all members of the health care team (e.g. physicians, primary nurse, social worker, registration, risk management, and medical records) to effect a medically appropriate and timely discharge.

Working with Social Workers

Social workers coordinate with hospitalists to help with your medical and non-medical needs, such as:

Actively participating in collaboration with the interdisciplinary treatment team to formulate and implement a treatment plan, including discharge planning.
Assisting with responsibilities such as financial resource referrals, transportation arrangements, hospice services, nursing home and rehab referrals, as well as other necessary supports.
Contributing appropriately to the treatment plan based upon assessment, which includes client/family/caregiver issues and concerns.
Communicating in a clear, concise, and timely manner with patients, families, caregivers, and treatment staff.

About Our Hospitalists

Stormont Vail Hospital has more than 20 hospitalists on staff. Our team of hospitalists has experience with many serious conditions that require a hospital stay.

As a patient, you can be admitted by one hospitalist, then assigned to a different hospitalist the next day, though we’ll try to make sure you’ll see the same physician as much as possible. Otherwise, physicians will communicate with each other during the transition since they work closely with the next doctor to take on their patient’s care. This is done as part of our commitment to providing continuity of care.

We have also pediatric hospitalists on staff to treat patients under 18 years of age.