Overview

A Fast-Growing Field

Hospital Medicine is the fastest growing medical specialty in the United States, and an integral part of the Department of Medicine at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

Physicians in the field of Hospital Medicine are known as hospitalists, and their primary focus is the general medical care of hospitalized patients. Working as part of a multi-disciplinary team, hospitalists utilize best practices and ensure that patients receive the safest, most efficient, and highest quality care during their stay.

Their responsibility is to the patient and the patient’s referring primary care or sub-specialty physician.  They carefully assess and evaluate the patient on admission, implement therapies, conduct and follow-up on diagnostic testing and procedures, and monitor the patient’s progress. 

Hospitalists communicate in real time with patients, families, nurses, sub-specialists and patients’ PCPs, thereby reducing the potential for miscommunication or complications.

Because hospitalists spend their time caring for hospitalized patients, they are more readily available than a patient’s PCP who spends much of the day outside the hospital tending to a busy private practice or clinic.

In addition to managing hospitalized patients, UM hospitalists are involved in the preoperative evaluation of patients going for non-cardiac surgery at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute and at the University of Miami Hospital. In addition, they manage patients referred by surgeons for medical consultation and management during their hospitalizations.