Value of Hospital Medicine in the Inpatient Management of Community-Acquired Pneumonia

摘要

The hospitalist specialty is one of the fastest growing medical specialties today. The hospitalist movement began in response to rising health care costs and has been fueled by the increasing complexity of the health care system, the demand for better physician availability, and concerns about medical errors, patient safety, and quality of care.Hospitalists, who focus primarily on the general medical care of hospitalized patients, can be instrumental in improving the outcomes and efficiency of inpatient care for commonly seen diseases such as community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). A hospitalist-who may see 20 to 40 cases of hospitalized pneumonia per year, compared with a family physician who may see only 3 cases-is more likely to predict pneumonia complications and effectively deal with clinical variations.