Nontraditional specialty physicians supplement hospitalist staffing
Our profession continues to experience steady growth, and demand for hospitalist physicians exceeds supply. In a recent article in The Hospitalist, Andrew White, MD, SFHM, highlighted the fact that most hospital medicine groups (HMGs) are constantly recruiting and open positions are not uncommon.
Dr. Carolyn A. Sites
When we think about recruitment and staffing, I bet many of us think principally of physicians trained in the general medicine specialties of internal medicine, family medicine, and pediatrics. Yet, to help meet demand for hospital-based clinicians, HMGs sometimes turn to physicians certified in emergency medicine, critical care, geriatric medicine, palliative care, and other fields.
To gain a better understanding of the diversity within our profession, the Society of Hospital Medicine’s State of Hospital Medicine survey asked HMGs whether they employ at least one physician in these various specialties. Results published in the recently released 2018 State of Hospital Medicine (SoHM) Report show significant differences among groups, affected by location, group size, and type of employer.
At the core of our profession are physicians trained in internal medicine, present in 99.2% of adult medicine HMGs throughout the United States. No surprise given that our field was founded by internists and remains a popular career choice for IM residency graduates. Family physicians follow, with the highest percentage of groups employing at least one FP located in the southern United States at 70.3% and lowest in the west at 54.7%. Small-sized groups – fewer than 10 full-time equivalents (FTEs) – were also more likely to employ FPs.
This speaks to the challenge – often faced by smaller hospitals – of covering both adult and pediatric patient populations and limited workforce availability. Pediatrics- and internal medicine/pediatrics–trained physicians help meet this need and were prevalent within small-sized groups. Another distinction found in the report is that, while 92.1% of multistate hospitalist management companies employed family physicians, only 28.8% of academic university settings did so. Partly because of Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education requirements for IM-certified teaching attending for internal medicine residents, FP and other specialties are filling some non–teaching hospitalist positions within our academic programs.
What may be surprising is that emergency medicine and critical care had the largest increase in representation in hospital medicine. The two specialties showed similar growth trends, with a larger presence in the South and Midwest states and 56% of multistate hospitalist management companies employing them. Small- to medium-sized groups of up to 20 FTEs were also more likely to have physicians from these fields, with up to 44% of groups doing so. This is a significant change from 2016, when less than 3.4% of all HMGs overall had a physician certified in emergency or critical care medicine.
This finding seems to coincide with the growth in hospital medicine groups who are covering both ED and inpatient services. For small and rural hospitals, it has become necessary and beneficial to have physicians capable of covering both clinical settings.
Contrast this with geriatric medicine and palliative care. Here, we saw these two specialties to be present in our academic institutions at 26.8% and 22.5%, respectively. Large-sized HMGs were more likely to employ them, whereas their presence in multistate management groups or private multispecialty/primary care groups was quite low. Compared with our last survey in 2016, their overall prevalence in HMGs hasn’t changed significantly. Whether this will be different in the future with our aging population will be interesting to follow.
Published biannually, the SoHM report provides insight into these and other market-based dynamics that shape hospital medicine. The demand for hospital-based clinicians and the demands of acute inpatient care are leading to the broad and inclusive nature of hospital medicine. Our staffing will continue to be met not only by internal medicine and family medicine physicians but also through these other specialties joining our ranks and adding diversity to our profession.
Dr. Sites is the executive medical director of acute medicine at Providence St. Joseph Health, Oregon, and a member of SHM’s Practice Analysis Committee. She leads the hospital medicine programs and is involved in strategy development and alignment of acute inpatient medicine services at eight member hospitals. She has been a practicing hospitalist for 20 years and volunteers on medical mission trips to Guatemala annually.
