Medical Hospitalist Service

• You will work with the Hospitalist of Pueblo while on this service.  The patients are those with private docs who have contracted with the Hospitalists, PCHC, and no-docs (this includes pts who have either a doctor out of town, or that doesn’t admit to SMC).

• Morning checkout is at 7AM in either the Wilz Conference Room or in the Doctor’s Lounge.

• You will normally have five patients to see each day – you can take on six if you so desire.  There is a lot of turnover on the service, so most days you will have new admissions to see.  The Hospitalist do not typically come in at night for admissions (unless they are ICU admissions), so most mornings you will be doing the H&Ps from the preceding night.

• See new patients first, then potential discharges, then your remaining ones.  Very sick or unstable patients will of course take priority.  Dictate H&Ps and Discharge Summaries as you go.  Make sure to include at the end of your dictation, “The pt. was discussed with Dr. So-and-So, who was the Hospitalist Attending at the time of admission/discharge,” as well as, “Please send a copy of this dictation to Dr. so-and-so (PCP) and to the Hospitalists of Pueblo.”  For discharge summaries, include the time spent preparing – if it is greater than 35 minutes, it gets billed differently.  The time starts when you begin planning the discharge, so talking with pt, making phone calls, filling out orders, etc., count toward your time.

• You will usually meet with the hospitalist attending around 10:30 or 11:00 to discuss the pt’s.  The afternoons are spent tying up loose ends (checking labs, studies, etc.) on your existing pts and doing new admissions.  If the service is slow in the afternoon, one of the interns may get to go home a bit early (at the discretion of the attending).  You will not take call with the hospitalists or round on the weekends when you are on the hospitalist service.