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Hospitalist VS Primary Care Physicians: What’s The Difference?

hospitalist vs primary care physicians

Medicine is now a vast cacophony of different and exciting specialties that have emerged over the last few years.

Nowadays, newer medical graduates have even more fields to filter through and find their niche in. And yet, some of them can feel like they are overlapping in terms of their job description, responsibilities, etc. Which tends to leave one confused.

One such specialty is of a hospitalist, which shares a lot of common ground with other specialties such asinternal medicine and primary care. But what are the main differences between a hospitalist and a primary care physician? Let’s compare and contrast.

  • The Rise Of The Hospitalist
  • How Does Primary Care And Hospitalist Differ?
  • Why More Doctors Are Opting For More Relaxed Specialties

When Did The Hospitalist Come To Be?

Unlike other specialties of it’s kind, the idea of ‘hospital medicine’ is still relatively new.

The term itself, hospitalist, was only coined back in the 1990s and was used to describe a physician who overlooked the care and management of hospitalized patients. But the role itself has existed for decades, helping look after patients that are unassigned but still admitted to the hospital for medical attention.

The specialty didn’t take off in America until 1996. Before that, it was the duty of general internists to take in these patients who didn’t have a specific team looking after them. Now, you can find a hospitalist working closely with primary care physicians, and the range of their clinical role depends upon which department they are posted in.

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Hospitalists are there to help manage unassigned inpatients and get them the specific medical or surgical care they might need while in the hospital. They also help lead first response teams in said hospital, perform basic bedside procedures, and can provide medical consults if need be.

It’s why you’d find hospitalists mostly in short stay care units such as the ICU and post-discharge units.

Hospital medicine is a broader term that details comprehensive medical care delivered to patients. It’s why hospitalists tend to be trained mostly in primary care fields such as Internal Medicine, Family Medicine or Paediatrics.

That doesn’t mean hospitalists can’t branch out into sub-specialties as there is a minority that have specialized in fields such as Gynecology, Obstetrics, and even Neurology.

Hospitalists are crucial when it comes to direct patient care in large-scale settings like hospitals. So, the more varied their training, the better targetted their care.

It also helps that hospitalists help keep costs low by gauging just what the patient being admitted needs. They help cut down on wait time and wasted resources, leading to their rise in popularity in the last couple of decades.

The best way to describe a hospitalist is as that doctor you get on arrival who helps direct your immediate care regarding the condition that led to your hospitalization until a specialist can come see you regarding your specific case.

How Does A Primary Care Physician Differ From A Hospitalist?

So, if hospitalists are basically just General Practitioners or GPs who work in a hospital, how do primary care physicians factor in?

Primary care physicians are doctors who are your first point of contact when accessing healthcare. The AAFP describe primary care physicians as those trained in ‘comprehensive, first contact, and continuing care’ for persons with any undiagnosed sign, symptom, or health concern.

But because they work most commonly in a community setting, primary care physicians are also expected to spread awareness about health and disease prevention. They are the first doctors you’d visit regarding your health, and are more commonly found in clinics and healthcare centers because of it.

And really, that is the main difference between hospitalists and primary care physicians – while you can always find a primary care physician in a hospital setting, a hospitalist does not work in outpatient facilities like clinics.

A hospitalist is well trained in navigating a hospital environment, helping direct the staff and working within it’s protocols. That’s part of why the hospitalist position exists, they connect dedicated physicians and nurses to patients who need them.

And in a day and age where primary care providers are becoming scarce, hospitalists help bridge the gap, to an extent. A primary care physician can focus on their outpatient duties because they know a hospitalist is there to cover the inpatient brunt of work.

The other main difference between a hospitalist and a primary care physician is that a hospitalist isn’t just a position for those well versed in hospital medicine. A nurse practitioner can also work as a hospitalist, as well as specialists in other fields of medicine.

However, with primary care physicians, it’s in the name: Only someone with an MD degree and experience in primary care fields can work as a primary care physician.

Is There A Downside To Being A Hospitalist?

Hospitalists have become the go-to when it comes to bridging primary care within the hospital setting. And yet, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows.

Because hospitalists primarily focus on inpatient services, they don’t sustain any long term connection with their patients. This is a problem when a chronically ill patient is going in and out of a hospital, with different hospitalists each time, leading to a fragmented history that delays a proper diagnosis and sustainable treatment plans.

It’s not like hospitalists haven’t helped improve the healthcare system, because they absolutely have. But their care goals are still not as defined as they should be, especially when compared to general physicians and primary care providers.

This overlap has the potential to cause confusion and impact healthcare accessibility.

However, the one area where hospitalists are defining their own space is through data science and medical informatics. These are both managerial tasks that hospitalists can easily tackle and improve and the way they integrate new systems of healthcare and utilize resources is likely where they will focus their energy.

But that doesn’t mean it’s going to happen overnight. And in the meantime, they are going through a lot. Hospitalists regularly deal with critically ill patients, especially considering how many of them are posted in Intensive Care, and the emotional toll can lead to higher levels of burnout.

This, coupled with the heavy workload, means that if you plan on having a work-life balance, then a Hospitalist position is probably not for you.

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