What is a Hospitalist?

Hospitalists are one of the newest specialties in the medical provider line of business. The questions are, what do they do and could they be a source for factoring leads?

The hospitalist is a private medical provider that becomes the clinical care giver while a patient is in the hospital. The patient is admitted by either the patient’s private provider or through the emergency room. Once admitted the patient’s private doctor “hands off” the patient to the hospitalist (with the same specialty as the private physician) and the hospitalist now cares for the patient. He/she would be responsible for daily examinations, prescribing medications, prescribing rehabilitation and ultimately discharging the patient once stable and/or recovered.

The benefits of a hospitalist are many. From the patient’s prospective the main benefit is that the hospitalist is in the facility all day, so contacting the physician when a situation occurs that needs the physician’s approval or examination is not an arduous task (like trying to reach an off-site physician by calling the doctor’s office, paging, texting etc.). The hospitalist is simply announced on the PA system of the facility and he/she can be there in a matter of minutes to not only prescribe, but to examine and treat as needed. From the private physician’s point of view, early morning rounds are a thing of the past. Those early hours required to visit patients in the hospital now can be dedicated to putting more time in the office and thus seeing more patients – increased revenue. The best part of the deal is that once discharged, the patient is now 100% back in the care of his/her own doctor. Clearly, these types of innovative enhancements in healthcare bring care to a higher level and enables efficiencies in all aspects of patient care.

These physician practices (hospitalists) very rarely have a large infrastructure, usually a biller and perhaps a bookkeeper. Cash flow is notoriously slow and bills do have to be paid. This provides a good opportunity for a marketing campaign toward these professionals and may bring new business to financial professionals that are referral sources.

One need not look too far for marketing materials; Xynergy Healthcare Capital has the specific collateral for marketing to this type of medical provider.