January 1, 2014Open Access

Use of hospitalists by Medicare beneficiaries: a national picture.

View Full Paper

Ask AI

Bookmark

Population

Physicians serving Medicare beneficiaries and Medicare admissions in 2009 and 2011.

Design

Cross-sectional

Authors

Discussion

Reflects major shift toward hospitalist-led inpatient care; leaves open questions on long-term quality and cost impacts.

Population

Physicians serving Medicare beneficiaries and Medicare admissions in 2009 and 2011 (n=580,638 total physicians and 12.17 million admissions in 2011).

Outcome

Percentage of Medicare admissions with a hospitalist as the attending physician and characteristics of hospitalists.

Hospitalists are increasingly serving as attending physicians for Medicare beneficiaries, managing nearly a third of all medical admissions by 2011.

Does not capture cases where hospitalists serve as consultants
90% inpatient charges criterion may be less specific for medical specialists
Only observes Medicare charges, underrepresenting pediatricians and obstetricians

Welch et al. (2014) studied this question.

View Full Paper

Ask AI

Bookmark