[Mom MD]

our hospitalist group is salaried as well. WE do not have a set number of days on/off but the schedule varies. We do not employ physician extenders, and try to work it so the pts have one or at most 2 hospitalists responsible for their care during their stay.

Our patient satisfaction is actually very high and I think the hospitalist movement has improved care significantly. Im sorry you had a bad experience. Im glad you were able to find an outpatient internist, that is getting to be a rare breed. MOst of my hospitalist group is like me - about 50ish, and joining a hospital practice after 20 years in primary care because the lifestyle is no longer sustainable.

[johniegrad]

We recently had a board certified nephrologist join our hospitalist service due to life style demands. He is perfectly happy doing what he is doing but our nephrology service has suffered. Some of this has to do with hospital bed capacity so that service can be compromised. We have roughly 500 beds covered by hospitalists.

I remember a conversation with our medical director about 18 years ago when 2 physicians had left out group and we tried to figure out what we had done wrong.

Docs, especially in primary care, have become commodities being traded on the open market. This is not good in my opinion for primary care and, more importantly, their patients.