WHAT DOES A HOSPITALIST DO?
Published: July 2, 2025 - The Hospitalist admits and manages adult inpatients by conducting examinations, rounding, documenting care, and coordinating discharge planning. This role ensures continuity of care by collaborating with specialists, triaging admissions, and providing consultative support to surgical patients. The position also contributes to quality improvement initiatives, participates in interdisciplinary rounds, and serves on clinical and administrative committees.
A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for Hospitalist
1. Hospitalist Duties
- Mission Support: Supports the mission, vision and values of the hospital
- Safety Awareness: Responsible for working safely and protectively at all times, keeping in mind that safety and environmental hazards are the responsibility of all employees for themselves, other staff members and patients
- Nursing Care: Acts as a role model by delivering direct nursing care to specific patients and families
- Nursing Consultation: Provides nursing consultation to the multidisciplinary team for complex cases, extended lengths of stay, crises and other specialty populations
- Staff Education: Participates in orientation and continuing education programs for nursing staff and multidisciplinary personnel, which are relevant to the clinical specialty
- Clinical Expertise: Applies advanced clinical expertise (clinical skills) within the context of the nursing process
- Standards Development: Participates in the formulation of Standards of Care, Protocols, procedures and structure standards
- Committee Leadership: Participates in and serves as chairperson on hospital committees
- Research Analysis: Critically analyzes research studies related to the area of specialization
- Research Application: Initiates the application of research findings to daily clinical practice
- Care Evaluation: Coordinates and conducts regular nursing care conferences to evaluate existing care, develop and update care plans, teach nursing staff and appropriate nursing interventions
- Practice Leadership: Provides creative and innovative leadership to members of the nursing staff for the improvement of nursing practice, patient outcomes, taking into consideration pertinent professional, economic and social trends
- Service Consultation: Initiates consultations with other services as authorized
2. Hospitalist Details
- Clinical Oversight: Provide expertise and clinical care oversight for pediatric patients admitted to an observation unit
- Pediatric Consultation: Serve as an advisor and provide pediatric consultation and expertise for the clinical care provided for complex pediatric patients enrolled in research protocols
- Emergency Leadership: Take the leadership role during all pediatric emergencies
- Perioperative Monitoring: Provide perioperative care and monitoring for children, attending to pediatric emergencies, rapid response calls and Code Blue events
- Patient Stabilization: Assist in the stabilization of children with acute events while alternative care opportunities or transfer to a partner institution are arranged
- Unit Oversight: Collaborate with hospital staff to oversee the monitored bed unit within the Pediatric 1NW Unit
- Physical Assessment: Perform and document the patient’s physical assessment and history
- Trend Analysis: Analyze trends in patient conditions
- Management Planning: Develop a patient management plan in response to the data obtained
- Team Collaboration: Communicate and collaborate with the multidisciplinary research team to ensure that patient management strategies are successful in meeting patients’ research
3. Hospitalist Responsibilities
- Inpatient Management: Admit and manage inpatients with general adult medical illnesses
- Patient Evaluation: Performing histories and physical examinations, rounding on patients, writing progress notes, discharge planning and timely completion of discharge summaries
- Care Coordination: Work closely with specialists and primary care physicians to ensure that inpatients receive continuous, high-quality care
- Surgical Support: Provision of 24/7 consultative support to inpatients admitted to the surgical service
- Triage Services: Provide triage services for the coordination of admission of patients currently in an ambulatory setting including the emergency room and/or clinic
- Admission Review: Discuss all medical admissions with emergency room, ICU and clinic physicians to ensure clinical appropriateness of admission to general medical floors
- Transfer Coordination: Discuss with external attending providers the possible transfer of appropriate veterans from outlying hospitals/Emergency Departments
- Care Optimization: Take an active role in optimizing the efficiency and effectiveness of the inpatient care process from admission through discharge
- Team Rounds: Perform inter-professional rounds on medical wards, managing and participating in the patients' care
- Clinical Functions: Perform appropriate clinical and administrative functions
- Quality Assurance: Participate in quality management/assurance and chart review activities
- Committee Leadership: Participate in, and at times lead, clinical and educational administrative committees, task groups, or special projects
- Staff Committees: Serve on Medical Staff committees
4. Hospitalist Job Summary
- Patient Care: Provides direct patient care in a hospital setting
- Data Collection: Reviews patient's medical history while collecting, prioritizing, and synthesizing comprehensive data pertinent to the patient's health or situation
- Care Decisions: Evaluates, interprets, and coordinates information to make decisions and recommendations regarding patient care
- Patient Education: Provides education, consultation or intervention to patients (treatment plan) and their families
- Health Collaboration: Works collaboratively with patients to improve their health and well-being
- Cultural Practice: Practices in a thoughtful manner including consideration for cultural diversity, individual autonomy and legal responsibilities
- Minor Procedures: Performs minor surgical procedures such as paracentesis, central line placements and arterial line placements, and peripherally inserted central catheter line insertion
- Airway Management: Performs endotracheal intubation procedures
- Electronic Charting: Charts in electronic format by licensure and scope
- Case Management: Actively participates in a multidisciplinary team approach to case management
- Call Participation: Participate in on-call rotation
- Quality Improvement: Utilizes quality improvement tools to develop processes that promote continuous improvement in the delivery of patient care, patient outcomes, or workflows
- Peer Review: Participate in peer review and quality assurance
- Newborn Rounds: Attend caesarian sections and round in the newborn nursery
- Patient Admission: Admit patients from the ER, as well as directly from primary care offices
- Code Rounds: Run codes/rounds in the ICU
- Care Model: Follow a unit-based care model in which hospitalists lead an interdisciplinary team focused on improving clinical and operational outcomes
5. Hospitalist Accountabilities
- Inpatient Management: Provides and manages direct inpatient care, including history and physical examinations, evaluations and assessments, diagnosis and treatment
- Procedure Performance: Procedures consistent with core privileges as outlined by the Methodist Healthcare Medical Staff policy
- Test Interpretation: Orders, performs and interprets examinations and tests and analyzes records and reports to diagnose patient conditions
- Team Coordination: Coordinates work with nurses, pharmacists, social workers, case managers and other health care team members
- Medical Education: Provides leadership and training in education to graduate medical and other approved educational programs
- Program Supervision: Functions as the Hospital’s attending physicians for Educational Programs
- Record Accuracy: Provides timely and accurate completion of medical and billing records
- Quality Programs: Participates in the hospital’s utilization management, risk management and performance improvement programs
- EHR Feedback: Supports Methodist Information Technology and Electronic Health Record meaningful use by active use, constructive feedback, and collaboration in improvements
- Curriculum Planning: Participates with Site Directors in Medical Education in planning curriculum and learning activities
- Faculty Activities: Plans with the Site Director and other involved educators for the faculty educational activities at Methodist Hospitals
- Education Counsel: Serves as counsel to Site Directors concerning Medical Education and Research matters
- Faculty Interaction: Provides interaction between Methodist faculty and UT faculty
- Education Liaison: Serves as liaison between Methodist learners, nursing and Clinics that have resident education
- Program Integration: Participates in patient care and administrative activities that complement the educational program