Beebe Hospitalist Program

What is a hospitalist?

A hospitalist is a physician who works full time for the hospital and does not maintain a separate private practice. Hospitalist teams provide hospitalized patients with round-the-clock physician care. Their responsibilities include: admitting patients; monitoring the patient's condition; ordering tests, treatments, and medications; consulting and co-managing patients with specialists; answering patient and family questions; and consulting with case managers to ensure the patient's discharge needs are met.

Hospitalists also communicate and coordinate follow-up care with the patient's personal physician, arrange for follow-up care in the community for patients who do not have a personal physician, and lead the hospital Rapid Response Team.

An innovative approach at Beebe

Beebe Medical Center introduced the Hospitalist concept in 2005 as a way to maintain the quality and continuity of care of its hospitalized patients. Board-certified in internal medicine, these physicians not only are familiar with Beebe Medical Center's processes, resources, and staff, but they are experienced at dealing with the hospitalized patients of today who are routinely much sicker than they were in the past when outpatient services were not as advanced or as utilized.

Hospitalists fill an important need

Beebe's Hospitalist Team provides rapid and coordinated physician responses to the needs of hospitalized patients, day or night. These physicians also serve on Beebe Medical Center's Rapid Response Team, which includes a registered nurse and a respiratory therapist. This team can be called whenever a staff member or even a family member thinks that a patient's condition may be worsening and believes an urgent medical evaluation is needed. No longer is there a wait for a physician to arrive at the patient's bedside.

Rapid response teams, recommended by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in 2004 as part of the Saving 100,000 Lives Campaign, are being initiated in hospitals across the nation to achieve the best possible patient care and outcomes.

Beebe Medical Center is proud to have initiated its Hospitalist program, which is an integral part of the quality of care and of the continuity of care provided to its patients.