Academician Attitudes and Beliefs Regarding the Use of Hospitalists: A CERA Study.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

The hospitalist model of inpatient care has spread into many hospitals in the United States with over 34,000 physicians, mostly general internists. Less than 4% of hospitalists trained as family doctors. Around 60% of family medicine residency programs (FMRPs) use hospitalists in their teaching model. Despite the swift growth of hospitalists, there are no reports as to medical educators' beliefs regarding hospitalists. The objective of this project was to survey FMRP directors regarding their attitudes and beliefs concerning the hospitalist model. This paper also reports on numbers of recent FMRP graduates entering hospitalist positions.

METHODS

All US allopathic FMRP directors were surveyed in October 2013. The survey questions were part of a larger CERA omnibus survey.

RESULTS

The response rate was 56.4%. Of 2012/2013 family medicine graduates, 9.2% entered hospitalist positions. FMRPs in the Southern United States, or of the community-based non-affiliated program type, as well as programs with higher percentages of current residents who are international medical graduates produce the most hospitalists. Most program directors did not feel their residents needed different hospital skills training than they are currently being taught. Use of hospitalists was not felt to improve patient care nor interfere with FMRPs influence at their teaching hospital.

CONCLUSIONS

Program directors generally felt neutral or positive about hospitalists and did not think this care model had positively or adversely affected their programs. Many family medicine residents are entering hospitalist positions upon graduating. Family medicine as a discipline should continue to study the hospitalist care model and its impact on family medicine training.