In addition to providing medical care, a hospitalist’s job is to communicate and coordinate with each patient’s family, primary care provider, and other specialists involved in patient care. Hospitalists help maintain continuity of care between hospital and outpatient settings. Some of the ways hospitalists do this are:
- Providing a smooth transition between the referring physician’s office and UF Health Shands Children’s Hospital
- Relaying timely, important information to the patient’s primary care physician during a hospital stay and at discharge
- Conducting patient and family-centered rounds with joint decision making on a daily basis
- Utilizing in-house knowledge of hospital policies and routines
- Creating a partnership between the patient’s primary care doctor and UF Health Shands Children’s hospital to ensure the patient receives the best medical care
- Enlisting the help of inpatient care coordinators to keep the process of being in the hospital running smoothly