The Future of Specialist-Centered Hospitals: The Hospitalist System

The hospitalist system is a specialist care model designed to meet the growing complexity and continuity demands of inpatient care amid the contexts of aging and multimorbidity. It addresses the limitations of resident-centered care by positioning specialists as primary providers, serving as a practical step toward a specialist-centered hospital model. Hospitalists improve care efficiency, ensure consistent clinical decisions, distribute medico-legal and educational burdens, and enable effective team-based care. Institutionalizing inpatient medicine through this model is a key step toward realizing a sustainable, specialist-led hospital structure. As both generalists and specialists, hospitalists manage complex patients across various disciplines, setting a new standard for patient-centered care. This paper argues that the hospitalist model is not merely a role expansion, but a strategic foundation for redefining inpatient care in Korea.