Readmissions within one week or one month of discharge were similar for primary care physicians and hospitalists but more frequent with other generalists.
Patients cared for by primary care physicians were 6% less likely to die within 30 days of discharge than people treated by hospitalists. But with generalists, patients were 9% more likely to die than with primary care physicians.
The study wasn’t a controlled experiment designed to prove whether or how the type of doctor treating hospital patients influences outcomes.
“This does not show that the hospitalist model does not work,” says Dr. Seth Landefeld, author of an accompanying editorial and a researcher at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
But it does suggest there are benefits to sticking with one doctor.
“A trusting relationship with a doctor who will `orchestrate’ your care through the course of illness can be very valuable, rather than bouncing from one subspecialist to another without a `conducting’ doctor,” Landefeld says by email.
Reference
- Stevens JP, Nyweide DJ, Maresh S, et al. Comparison of hospital resource use and outcomes among hospitalists, primary care physicians and other generalists. JAMA Intern Med. 2017 Nov 13. doi: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2017.5824. [Epub ahead of print]
