Celebrating 10 Years of Hospitalist Care

The BWH Academic Hospitalist Service celebrated its 10-year anniversary in July, marking a decade of tremendous growth and expansion of roles.

The term “hospitalist” was first coined in 1996 to describe physicians who partner with primary care physicians (PCPs) to see their patients through their entire stay at the hospital. In 1998, there were approximately 1,000 hospitalists practicing in the U.S., including three starting a new hospitalist service at BWH. Initially the role of the hospitalist was expected to improve efficiency of care by being available in the hospital so that PCPs would be more accessible to see patients in the outpatient setting. The role of the hospitalist has evolved so that hospitalists are expected to lead, participate or coordinate initiatives to improve the quality of patient-centered care and teaching. Today, there are more than 20,000 hospitalists in the country, including 30 members of the BWH Academic Hospitalist Service.

Since 1998, the service has expanded to include the BWH general medicine consult service, four general medical resident teams, the physician assistant clinician educator service and half of the Integrated Teaching Unit at Faulkner. The BWH Academic Hospitalist Service is part of the Department of Medicine, and its 30 physicians and physician assistants hold academic posts in the Division of General Internal Medicine, the Division of Social Medicine of the Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics.

“We aim to provide high quality, compassionate inpatient care, to excel as educators, and to continuously improve processes of care,” said Sylvia McKean, MD, medical director of the BWH Hospitalist Service. “In just 10 years we have recruited an exceptional group of talented clinicians and we are working to standardize the care we deliver.”