Page 15 - Hospitalists - Risks When You're the Doctor in the House (Part One)

SVMIC Hospitalists - Risks When You’re the Doctor in the House

Because of the limited time they can spend with

their patients, hospitalists are potentially in a risk
category closer to emergency department

doctors and others who provide episodic care.
The difficulty in establishing a relationship of

trust and rapport with the patient and family
place hospitalists at a disadvantage if legal action should be

taken. It is well-established that patients are less likely to sue a
physician with whom they feel a close personal connection. But,

if the physician is “just a name on a medical record”, it is easier
to sue that physician.

The problem of insufficient time is often compounded by the

added responsibility of supervision of advanced practitioners
imposed by hospital employers. While in theory, advanced

practitioners should take some of the workload off of
physicians, the required supervisory duties (which can vary

from organization to organization) are often equal to or greater
than the workload that was replaced. From a risk perspective,

the likelihood that the hospitalist supervisor will be involved
in a claim or lawsuit increases by the number of advanced

practitioners he or she supervises. In virtually all cases where
a claim is asserted against an advanced practitioner, the

physician supervisor is also named under the guise of a failure
to adequately supervise.

Although there are advantages to being a hospital-employed
physician, the hospitalist has to consider issues such as having

to deal with a lot of rules and regulations typically present
in a large bureaucracy, the bureaucracy itself, not having a

staff under the physician’s control, and having little control

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