There are more than 50,000 hospitalists practicing Hospital Medicine in hospitals across the country.
Yet, it wasn’t always this way. Prior to the introduction of this relatively new field of medicine, a patient’s primary care doctor would monitor their hospital care, an inefficient process and a burden for a physician already working at capacity.
The term “hospitalist” and Hospital Medicine was introduced as a new medical specialty dedicated to the delivery of comprehensive medical care to hospitalized patients in 1996 when 2 University of California San Francisco physicians penned an article in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) making the case for this new type of doctor. Sometimes referred to as a physician generalist, a hospitalist manages all aspects of a patient’s care; handling everything from diabetes and hypertension to asthma and sepsis.
During the past 3 decades, hospitalists have made profound changes to a patient’s experience in the hospital and have had a significant impact on medical institutions too. Since their focus is on inpatient care, hospitalists are charged with managing high patient census to provide timely and effective care and reduce delays.
Recent studies have found that having hospitalists on staff can cut costs and shorten lengths of stay—all while improving the safety and quality of patient care. Today, nearly 75 percent of U.S. hospitals have hospitalists on staff.
Meet some of the hospitalists who are making a profound contribution to quality improvement and safety at Tufts Medicine:
Diane Sun, MD is the interim division chief of Hospital Medicine at Tufts Medical Center. She manages a team of 24 Hospitalists, including Physician Assistants, who help coordinate a patient’s care from the point of admission to discharge.
She has been with Tufts Medical Center since 2021 and enjoys the varied aspects of the role, taking great joy in seeing a patient’s progress. “It’s gratifying to go through the journey with our patients and helping them to get better.”
Sean Quinn, Hospitalist Physician Assistant at Tufts Medical Center, has been at Tufts Medical Center since 2022 and says he loves the field of Hospital Medicine because of the variety of medicine he practices each day. “We work to manage the social and community aspects that contribute to a patient’s care, which requires working with a wide range of healthcare professionals. Our goal is to enable a successful discharge for our patients.”
Seema Sahib, MD has been a Hospitalist at Lowell General Hospital since March 2016 and says the specialty plays a unique role in driving quality-improvement initiatives across the healthcare landscape. “Our daily interactions work with diverse health care teams and specialties. Our care plans exert considerable influence on clinical outcomes, institutional performance metrics, financial outcomes, and patient-safety ratings.”
Hospitalist Chief, Deepthi Koneru, MD has been with MelroseWakefield Hospital since 2013. She loves the role of a Hospitalist for the immediate difference it can make on a person's health condition in a short span of time. “It's a privilege to gain a patient's trust in a span of days, hours or even minutes at times,” she says. Dr. Koneru most enjoys the time spent behind the scenes connecting with families, consultants and treatment team members to create a meaningful plan of care.
