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Hospitalists can help cut healthcare costs

Hospitalist Leadership Connection, March 16, 2010

Hospitalists play a pivotal role to help reduce healthcare costs, according to a new editorial article, “The critical role of hospitalists in controlling healthcare costs,” published in the March issue of the Journal of Hospital Medicine.

The United States spends twice as much per capita as other industrialized countries on healthcare but without evidence of better patient outcomes. The article proposes the following actions to help hospitalists control national healthcare costs:

• Develop a secure, user-friendly database in which individual physicians can view local and national spending patterns
• Access a single clearinghouse of evidence-based guidelines of clinical value, cost-effectiveness, and testing and treatment
• Develop joint guidelines for emergency medicine and hospital medicine, particularly regarding unnecessary admissions
• Develop patient education materials regarding advanced directives and end-of-life care
• Intensify federal and state advocacy for reduced medical liability, electronic medical records, and value-based reimbursement
• Encourage professional development though formal board certification
• Support improved coordination of care and patient transitions

“…Hospitalists have a unique and perhaps transient opportunity to demonstrate their singular commitment to rational healthcare spending and by doing so to gain significant influence in shaping the impending healthcare reforms,” stated the article.

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