Sid Schwab: “For physicians — medical and surgical alike — the hospitalist model is a clear WIN-WIN. For patients, it’s more like win-win. The win-win for surgeons lies in the freedom from emergency cases and the ease of call whereby, presumably, one would only need to be available on the phone to one’s own patients and could, if desired, let the hospitalists take care of middle-of-the-night need to hospitalize them. The ability to plans one’s days and nights translates into a considerable lowering of stress.”
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Dr. Chris Kosakowski, MD, a surgeon at Sutter Medical Center of Santa Rosa, CA, started the first Surgical Hospitalist program in 2001.
Covering 2 hospitals with almost 200 beds, 2 ICUs, two emergency rooms, general and vascular surgery and a wound care center required the efficiency of integrated computer systems, billing system, and the co-operation of dedicated surgeons.
Private practice surgeons in the area boycotted hospitals and services at their whim, so that the Surgical Hospitalist program was often the only resource for all three HMOs in Sonoma County, uninured and underinsured patients, and patients who whose speicialist (such as urologists) were boycotting at the time.
Between 3 and 5 surgeons, often rotating from smaller regional hospitals, integrated the services under Dr. Kosakowski’s direction.
I was pleased to have been a part of this service for a few years.
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