'Hospitalists' Offer Quicker Service To Hospital Patients

SEBRING - As far as doctors go, Dr. Raymond Veras does not get out much.

He spends his work hours mostly inside Florida Hospital, checking on the more ill children and infants, some of them hospital-bound. Like him.

The pediatric hospitalist is a new breed of doctor in the area. Hired two months ago, he is the first pediatrician to not only visit Florida Hospital or to refer the sick children there, he also stays there, he says.

Along with Dr. Cathy Lee and Dr. Ronald Fronda, who switch back and forth between the hospitals in Lake Placid and Sebring, the three from Florida Hospital and two others from Highlands Regional Medical Center are doing what several hospitals across the country began doing 11 years ago. With outside doctors getting slammed with patients and other patients being too sick for a simple office visit, both Florida Hospital and Highlands Regional Medical Center began hospitalist programs less than a year ago.

Dr. Carol Stearns, a hospitalist at Highlands Regional, said she and fellow hospitalist Dr. Cheri McCue work somewhat like their private counterparts - she had a private practice before joining Highlands Regional in May. Taking the more seriously ill patients in the hospital, she said the hospitalists take some of the load off the other doctors.

HRMC spokeswoman Kathleen Border said the hospitalist is supposed to take care of inbound patients and take over the roles of their home doctors as long as they're hospitalized. But the doctor and the hospitalist keep each other informed.

"That patient continues to be that physician's patient," Border said. "He just hands over care while that patient is in that hospital."

Stearns said she usually sees 15-20 patients a day, fewer patients than what she saw during her time practicing in her own office.

Veras is in a slightly different position since pediatric patients tend to spike in number during certain seasons. From 10-15, he could find himself treating up to 30 patients at times, including newborns.

At the hospital, Veras also said he's in a better position to give faster treatments to his patients because the hospital's more advanced facilities are in reach.

"We work in real time," Veras said. "The docs in the office are still seeing patients on their outpatient setting ... they have a more difficult time getting up to the minute process."

Saving Time

Daniel Catalano, Florida Hospital Heartland Division's vice president of medical affairs, said the hospital began using them in order to cut down on the amount of time patients spend waiting for and getting treated.

"For example, if one of the community pediatricians had a patient here and a lab was ordered, they may not see that lab again unless there was a critical value, until the next morning," Catalano said. "Whereas Dr. Veras is here he can see it as soon as it is available."

Veras said the training he picked up was nearly identical to that of a regular pediatrician, except that he focused on working in a hospital setting as a resident.

Catalano added that most hospitalists train in internal medicine, which for a hospital is the closest thing to a study in general medicine.

Stearns, already trained in internal medicine, said she just transitioned in.

According to information from the Philadelphia-based Society of Hospital Medicine, hospitalists are still rare, but are growing rapidly in number. Nationwide, there are approximately 10,000 to 12,000 of them, compared to about 8,000 in 2003. Ten years from now, they expect a hospital workforce of 30,000. Between Florida Hospital's two medical centers and HRMC, Highlands County has five.

The society also stated a cost benefit to using hospitalists over standard doctors. By cutting the time a doctor needs to get labs and deal with patients, costs also go down.

"That is one of the reasons why hospitals, insurers, and economic and quality forces are propelling the shift to hospitalists as a way to improve the efficiency of care for hospitalized patients," the Society FAQ states.