The bottom-line test for Dr. Siegal: Consider the patient’s best interests. Ask yourself, he advises, “if your mother came into the hospital with a head bleed, who would you want her to see first? Hospitalists are not interchangeable with neurosurgeons, and yet, unfortunately, we have started marketing ourselves as being adequate replacements for people who have spent far more time training in a specialty.
“As an intensivist, I’ve got a bit of experience with head bleeds,” he says. “But the neurosurgeon still knows more.”
Gretchen Henkel is a freelance writer in central California.
References
- Huddleston JM, Long KH, Naessens JM, et al. Medical and surgical co-management after elective hip and knee arthroplasty: a randomized, controlled trial. Ann Intern Med. 2004;141(1): 28-38.
- Roy A, Heckman MG, Roy V. Associations between the hospitalist model of care and quality-of-care-related outcomes in patients undergoing hip fracture surgery. Mayo Clin Proc. 2006;81(1):28-31.
- Siegal EM. Just because you can, doesn’t mean that you should: A call for the rational application of hospitalist comanagement. J Hosp Med. 2008;3(5):398-402.
- The Joint Commission. Surgical Care Improvement Project. The Joint Commission website. Available at: http://www.jointcommission.org/surgical_care_improvement_project/. Accessed Sept. 30, 2012.