Premier at St. Rita's Medical Center
About Premier
Hospitalists
The Premier Hospitalist Services division provides tremendous operational and competitive advantages by decreasing patient Length–of–Stay and increasing facility Case Mix Index. Premier Hospitalist Services operate 24 hours per day, 365 days per year providing daytime, evening or twenty–four hour "in–house" coverage and care for routine adult MedSurg patients and adult patients requiring critical care services.
About
Premier Health Care Services established its first Hospitalist Service in July 1999. Currently, the group operated six Hospitalist Service programs in five different cities. Hospitalist Service staffing consists of "in–house" Hospitalist coverage Monday through Friday from approximately 7:30 am to early evening. Saturday and Sunday in–house coverage is provided for morning/afternoon rounds until all inpatient work is completed. The remainder of the staffing is provided by a physician who is in-house or "on–call".
The Hospitalists, when not in–house, are "on–call" to return to the hospital on an as–needed basis. Routine Hospitalist admissions during periods of time when the Hospitalists are not in the hospital may be admitted "over the phone." The Hospitalists will return to the hospital whenever a patient's condition requires attending physician involvement including disposition management. This structure has been found to allow for efficient patient management and disposition and meet patient and medical staff needs. This staffing approach also allows for a relative reduction in hospital subsidy compared with a 24 hour in–house Hospitalist Service.
The Hospitalist Service admits all "unclaimed" medical admissions. As a result, the adult primary care unclaimed admission call schedule is transferred to the Hospitalist. The service also accepts private patient referrals from private primary care physicians. A "backend" hospital staff call schedule is necessary.
All patients cared for by the Hospitalist are referred for outpatient care to their private physician or, for unclaimed patients, to a rotating list of medical staff primary care physicians. Premier Hospitalists do not have an office practice, which helps eliminate the atmosphere of competition between the Hospitalists and other physicians in the area.
In addition to patient admissions, the Hospitalists perform a number of other services including:
- Pre–operative and medical consultations for inpatients and outpatients
- Participation on hospital committees
- Implementation and leadership in the utilization of clinical care protocols
- Response to inpatient codes
- Timely medical record discharge summary and attestation sheet completion
Premier Hospitalists provide services in general internal medicine, medical ICU, cardiac care coordination of specialty consultations and coordination of medically necessary invasive procedures. The Hospitalist Service is financed through fee–for–service billings for professional services, plus stipend support from the hospital.
Why Premier
- Length of stay reductions result in a significant reduction in hospital expenses
- Enhanced revenue results from CMI increases related to improved documentation
- Timely discharge summary and attestation sheet completion results in improved facility cash flow Bed availability improvement results from timely patient discharges
- Improves focus on care provided to inpatients and improves communication to patients and families
- Significant reduction in malpractice risk related to "failure to diagnose", "failure to treat" and "failure to admit"
- Significant reduction in EMTALA risk due to fewer transfers
- Attraction of new patient admissions and outpatient procedures to the facility
- Increases in market share from increased patient referrals to the facility
- High level of patient satisfaction
- Medical staff satisfaction and relief from "unclaimed" in–patient call schedules
- Hospital administration satisfaction and support
Contact
For more information, please contact Paul Kolodzik, MD at (937) 312–3610 or (800) 726–3627, ext. 3610 or via e-mail, pjkolodzik@phcsday.com
Premier Health Care Services, Inc.
332 Congress Park Drive
Dayton, OH 45459
800-726-3627
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© 2010 Premier Health Care Services, Inc.