AAMC's Hospitalist Program A Benefit to Patients
Your In-Hospital Specialist
When your daughter needs a doctor, you take her to a pediatrician. If you need care especially for your heart, you visit a cardiologist. Today, Abbeville Area Medical Center is offering patients a specialist to meet their needs while they are receiving care in the hospital - a hospitalist.
When internal medicine physician Pinky Bora-Saikia, M.B.B.S., M.D., joins the staff of AAMC this Fall, she will be in a rotation to provide hospitalist services to the community. AAMC has had a hospitalist program for seven years and, along with facilities across America, has been reaping the benefits of having a physician available who specializes in the care of hospital patients.
What Is a Hospitalist?
Being a hospital-based physician is a relatively new specialty. The Society of Hospital Medicine - a professional organization of hospitalists - says the field of hospital medicine is the fastest-growing medical specialty today. Currently, there are about 20,000 hospitalists practicing in America, and the field is expected to expand to 30,000 practitioners by 2010.
As a general rule, most hospitalists are trained in internal medicine, family practice medicine or general pediatrics. They are well prepared to offer patients quality, convenient care in the hospital environment. Unlike primary care physicians, they are always on the hospital campus, prepared to consult with nurses and other providers in the event of an emergency and to direct the patient’s care. When the patient leaves the hospital, he or she either returns to the care of his or her own primary care physician or is referred to another primary care physician in the area.
The Hospitalist Advantage
Ultimately, it will be the community who benefits most from having an in-hospital physician available to meet patients’ needs.
“Offering our patients the services of a hospitalist fits perfectly with our mission to continually improving the health of the communities we serve,” says Lucile Culbreth, CNO of AAMC. “The services provided by Dr. Bora-Saikia are only one piece of AAMC’s comprehensive approach to providing the best in medical care.”
For more information about other programs and services available through AAMC, visit www.AbbevilleAreaMC.com.
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