No hospital is too small to benefit from a hospitalist program. Hospital Care Consultants primarily works with small rural hospitals with programs tailored specifically around your needs.  Some of our programs are done in concert with Emergency Department physicians – using them as hospitalists during their slower time. 

 

My facility is a critical access hospital (CAH).  How do you structure programs for such small facilities?

Critical access hospitals have a maximum of 25 acute beds.  Hospital Care Consultants has created a special CAH hospitalist program specifically designed to meet the needs of such hospitals.  We understand the regulations governing CAH operations, and we work with local physicians to maximize the return to the hospital.

Hospitalist programs are too expensive.  How can I afford it?

HCC’s programs produce an average return on investment of 3.5 to 1. Hospital Care Consultants will review your hospital’s specific information and show you how your hospital could improve profitability, patient care and operating efficiency with the right hospitalist program.  Patient care and patient satisfaction have a very positive impact on facilities with quality hospitalist programs.

Hospital Care Consultants will review your admissions, interview your physicians, and analyze your admission patterns.  Generally, rural hospitals see a significant reduction in patient admissions Thursday – Sunday of each week.  Local primary care physicians generally choose to not admit patients that they will have to round on during the weekend.  Each patient not admitted means your hospital does not receive the $4000 - $5000 such admissions generate. This may also result in less-than-optimum care for the patient.

How do I convince my Medical Staff to accept a Hospitalist program when they are against it?

Hospital Care Consultants will not start a program in a facility where we have not met with the medical staff.  Our educational presentation does a very good job of explaining to your physicians how hospitalist programs work.

Once your physicians understand that our programs are completely voluntary, that we will accept any unassigned patients if your physicians wish, that we will take over as either attending or perform consultations at any time and return them to the primary care physician at any time, physicians begin to realize that the right hospitalist program is an enhancement to the hospital, and can be a valuable tool for them to use.

Why do I need a hospitalist program if my physicians discharge patients on time?

Even if your physicians are discharging patients in the timeframe that Medicare says is reasonable, hospitalists generally discharge patients sooner.  On average, hospitalists have a length of stay of 0.7 days less than primary care physicians.  On average, hospitalists have a reduction in cost per case of 11% versus primary care physicians.  On average, hospitalists have a readmission rate 82% lower than primary care physicians. Hospital Care Consultants physicians are resident at your hospital 24 hours a day.  This allows them to be very responsive to patient, family, and nursing needs.  Reduction in average length of stay is only one component of quality hospitalist programs. 

Why do I need a hospitalist program if my physicians admit all appropriate patients?

Although hospitals like to think that their medical staff admits every patient that is appropriate for inpatient care at your facility, physicians usually admit that there are instances where they choose not to admit a patient.  HCC has found such circumstances are quite common in smaller communities where primary care physicians have busy office practices.  Some patients are sent home and told to follow-up in a couple of days; some patients are sent to a facility out-of-town because the primary care physician does not have time or expertise to manage the care.  Some primary care physicians direct the Emergency Department to transfer care to another hospital on patients they are not willing to manage.  Each such case represents a lost $4000 - $5000 opportunity.

Why do I need a hospitalist program if I don’t have many transfers to other facilities?

HCC has found that in many rural hospitals, there are few specialists on staff who are willing to manage complex patient care needs.  Since Hospital Care Consultants physicians are in-house 24 hours a day, they are readily available to manage the complex cases.  Typically, the number one reason for patient transfers is chest pain and the need to rule-out cardiac events.  Statistics show that over 80% of all chest pain cases are non-cardiac.  Local physicians are generally not comfortable managing cardiac cases, and thus most of these patients get transferred, resulting in a significant lost opportunity for your hospital.

What size hospitals are best for a hospitalist program?

Hospital Care Consultants has found that virtually every hospital can justify a quality hospitalist program.  Critical access hospitals find that hybrid programs are very successful – using Emergency Department physicians as hospitalists.  Hospital Care Consultants has a formal training program for these physicians. 

Hospital Care Consultants provides physician care that is on-site 24 hours per day.  Generally, one physician is in-house is sufficient for the needs of facilities with less than 100 acute beds.  Hospital Care Consultants will typically utilize 3 – 4 physicians to provide this level of coverage.

In larger hospitals, Hospital Care Consultants will partner with the hospital on providing a cost-effective program of physician staffing, clinical and operational staffing, and management oversight.  Hospital Care Consultants also provides consulting services to these larger facilities to help revamp existing first or second generation programs bringing them up to current standards.

No program is too small or too large for Hospital Care Consultants’ involvement.

How do hospitalist programs work?

Hospital Care Consultants recruits, credentials and provides Board Certified physicians to its client hospitals for managing inpatient care of your patients 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.  Our physicians manage the care of any and all patients assigned to them – either unassigned patients from the Emergency Department, or accepted to the hospitalist service from a local physician.

Hospitalists round multiple times per day on each patient.  They are available, generally, at any time to help the nursing staff with a question or problem with one of the hospitalist’s patients.  They are capable of managing ICU and CCU patients, as well as acute patients, skilled nursing and cardiac rehabilitation care. 

Hospital Care Consultants charges its client hospitals an hourly stipend for staffing the facility.  It also receives the professional billing fees for its services.  Hospital Care Consultants provides the physicians we provide with malpractice insurance coverage.  Generally, hospitals will achieve a breakeven on the cost of a quality hospitalist program with 12 – 13 new admissions per month.  In most of HCC’s programs, we find our hospitalists are admitting 1 new patient per day – or 30 per month.  Coupled with a reduction in the average cost per case and the reduction in length of stay, most hospitals achieve a return on their investment of better than 3 to 1.