The Hospitalist Support Team: the Foundation for Supporting a Seven-Specialty Hospitalist Group

Hospitalist medicine has grown considerably over the last 30 years. What began as internal medicine physicians filling the role of primary care physicians for their hospitalized patients has expanded to other specialties. This growth has created a need for both administrative and clinical support for these hospitalist specialties. To meet the needs of the adult Internal medicine-based group, a small community hospital created an administrative structure in order to facilitate clinical and administrative needs. As the administrative group began providing support to other specialties, this led to integration within the group. The program has grown to seven specialties and 56 physicians and 17 advanced practitioners. Benefits have included assistance in providing sufficient staffing, payroll, ensuring clinical quality, and interfacing with both other specialties and nursing. Challenges have included supporting vastly different needs of multiple specialties and the large number of physicians within the group.