Comparison of hospital costs and length of stay for community internists, hospitalists, and academicians

    Authors

    G. Everett; N. Uddin;B. Rudloff

    Comments

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    Abbreviated Journal Title

    J. Gen. Intern. Med.

    Keywords

    hospitalist; medical care costs; academic medicine; MODEL; CARE; PHYSICIANS; SERVICE; Health Care Sciences & Services; Medicine, General & Internal

    Abstract

    Background: The model of inpatient medical management has evolved toward Hospitalists because of greater cost efficiency compared to traditional practice. The optimal model of inpatient care is not known. Objective: To compare three models of inpatient Internal Medicine (traditional private practice Internists, private Hospitalist Internists, and Academic Internists with resident teams) for cost efficiency and quality at a community teaching hospital. Design: Single-institution retrospective cohort study. Measurements and Main Results: Measurements were hospital cost, length of stay (LOS), mortality, and 30-day readmission rate adjusted for severity, demographics, and case mix. Academic Internist teams had 30% lower cost and 40% lower LOS compared to traditional private Internists and 24% lower cost and 30% lower LOS compared to private Hospitalists. Hospital mortality was equivalent for all groups. Academic teams had 2.3-2.6% more 30-day readmissions than the other groups. Conclusions: Academic teams compare favorably to private Hospitalists and traditional Internists for hospital cost efficiency and quality.

    Journal Title

    Journal of General Internal Medicine

    Volume

    22

    Issue/Number

    5

    Publication Date

    1-1-2007

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    662

    Last Page

    667

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000245831500017

    ISSN

    0884-8734

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