Premium
The Influence of Hospitalist Continuity on the Likelihood of Patient Discharge in General Medicine Patients
Author(s) -
Walraven Carl
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
journal of hospital medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.128
H-Index - 65
eISSN - 1553-5606
pISSN - 1553-5592
DOI - 10.12788/jhm.2957
Subject(s) - medicine , hospital medicine , patient discharge , medline , hospital discharge , emergency medicine , intensive care medicine , family medicine , political science , law
Hospitalists responsible for specific inpatients may change during their hospitalization. To measure the association of hospitalist continuity with the adjusted daily discharge probability, 6,405 admissions (38,967 patient‐days, 5,208 patients) to a general medicine service at a tertiary care teaching hospital in 2015 were investigated. Continuity was measured as the consecutive number of days – including weekends – a hospitalist treated a particular team of patients. After accounting for important covariables, discharge probability increased significantly with hospitalist continuity; the adjusted daily discharge probabilities for an average patient with a new physician vs. one on service for four continuous weeks were 18.1% and 25.7%, respectively ( P < .001). Hospitalist continuity did not influence hospital mortality. Increasing hospitalist continuity could decrease hospital length of stay.