#1 Dinosaur bluntly critiques the exploding hospitalist movement, likening them to the subprime mortgage meltdown.

Most hospitals run their programs at a loss, with the hope that hospitalists will lower the costs of inpatient care. The nationwide data is inconsistent at best, but thus far, most hospitals are willing to pay the premium for cost savings down the road.

Will the less-leader economics of hospitalist medicine eventually collapse?

Look at the housing market. It took decades, but because of the fundamentals of subprime lending, it had to happen. You cannot go on indefinitely spending more money than you make.

Although the jury may still be out on field’s future, the current environment is nothing short of lucrative:

“Physicians want to work as a hospitalist . . . but those data tell me that there are doctors who want to get one or two years of experience in a group, then become a free agent. They’ll go down the street and say, ‘I’m a hospitalist with two years of experience, so I want a salary of $249,000 and a $25,000 signing bonus because there’s no one else out there like me.'”

topics: hospitalist, hospital