Published in the February 2006 issue of Today’s Hospitalist
their specialty? With the demand for hospitalists running at an all-time high “and with no end to that demand in sight “that question is on the minds of groups everywhere.
As we report in this month’s cover story, hospitalists are such a hot commodity that many are beginning to pick and choose the jobs they like. That’s forcing employers, whether they’re private groups or hospitals, to start looking for physicians earlier and harder.
But even more importantly, some hospitalist groups may soon find that they need to change the way they do business to attract and retain physicians.
The word on the street is that hospitalists are beginning to avoid practices and groups that have bad reputations, or don’t seem to mesh with their vision of hospital medicine. If that proves to become a trend, it could provoke some soul-searching among hospitalist services that are having trouble recruiting physicians.
While groups may never be able to meet all of a physician’s demands “the story of the group that lost several hospitalists because of its parking situation is a good example “there are things that hospitalist practices can do to make themselves more attractive to physicians.
The question now is what kinds of change hospitalists’ growing clout in the marketplace may produce.
Edward Doyle
Editor and Publisher
edoyle@todayshospitalist.com
