Abstract

It has been suggested that inpatient hospital care has been neglected in our enthusiasm for community- based ambulatory care. Nevertheless, over one-third of our health dollars are spent in hospitals and the majority of people alive today will have received some of their healthcare as hospital inpatients. The current environment of downsizing, restructuring and cost shifting, however, has had a profound effect on the acuity of and expectations for inpatient care and, coupled with a withdrawal of physicians from inpatient care, is forcing us to rethink how we care for this population. What is rapidly emerging is the development of hospitalist models for inpatient care.