Postdischarge telephone calls by hospitalists as a transitional care strategy.

OBJECTIVES: To determine whether treating hospitalists can identify and address early postdischarge problems through a structured telephone call. STUDY DESIGN: Prospective cohort study. METHODS: We studied patients insured through a managed care program who were discharged from a general internal medicine service of a university-affiliated public safety net hospital (Denver Health Medical Center) between March 1, 2012, and October 31, 2013. The hospitalist who treated the patient during their hospitalization contacted them 48 to 72 hours after discharge and completed a structured telephone assessment. We assessed the type and frequency of problems identified, the proportion of calls in which problems were independently addressed by the hospitalist, the proportion referred for additional managed care services, and the duration of calls and subsequent care coordination. RESULTS: Treating hospitalists identified 1 or more problems in 74 of the 131 patients (56%) contacted. The most common categories of problems were: new or worsening symptoms (41%), difficulty accessing recommended follow-up care (21%), and medication issues (20%). Hospitalists independently managed the problems identified in 68% of the calls; additional services were required in 32%. Median time spent per call was 8 minutes (interquartile range, 5-12). CONCLUSIONS: Treating hospitalists identified problems in over half of patients contacted by telephone shortly after discharge, the largest proportion of which were new or worsening symptoms. Hospitalists were able to address the majority of problems identified through the single, brief telephone encounter without utilizing additional resources.

Gender disparities in leadership and scholarly productivity of academic hospitalists.

BACKGROUND: Gender disparities still exist for women in academic medicine but may be less evident in younger cohorts. Hospital medicine is a new field, and the majority of hospitalists are <41 years of age. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether gender disparities exist in leadership and scholarly productivity for academic hospitalists and to compare the findings to academic general internists. DESIGN: Prospective and retrospective observational study. SETTING: University programs in the United States. MEASUREMENTS: Gender distribution of (1) academic hospitalists and general internists, (2) division or section heads for both specialties, (3) speakers at the 2 major national meetings of the 2 specialties, and (4) first and last authors of articles from the specialties' 2 major journals RESULTS: We found equal gender representation of hospitalists and general internists who worked in university hospitals. Divisions or sections of hospital medicine and general internal medicine were led by women at 11/69 (16%) and 28/80 (35%) of university hospitals, respectively (P = 0.008). Women hospitalists and general internists were listed as speakers on 146/557 (26%) and 291/580 (50%) of the presentations at national meetings, respectively (P < 0.0001), first authors on 153/464 (33%) and 423/895 (47%) publications, respectively (P < 0.0001), and senior authors on 63/305 (21%) and 265/769 (34%) articles, respectively (P < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: Despite hospital medicine being a newer field, gender disparities exist in leadership and scholarly productivity.