The MassGeneral Hospital for Children (MGHfC) pediatric hospitalist group was started in July 2004 and has cared for over six hundred patients to date, accounting for more than two thousand patient days. Hospitalists provide full-time inpatient general pediatric coverage for community pediatricians who prefer to have an MGHfC attending physician care for their patients admitted to the hospital.
In addition to caring for general pediatric patients, a primary goal of the hospitalist group is to improve coordination of care for children with chronic conditions or special heath-care needs, including multi-system pathologies. The hospitalist’s goal is to bring a unified thought process to treatment, while working with MGHfC’s talented subspecialists and allied health professionals. Additionally, hospitalists work to improve communication with primary care docs to help children continue to receive optimal care after they have left the hospital.
Other goals include:
- Supporting residents when they are called for consultation to different parts of the hospital or to Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, and Boston Shriner’s Hospital
- Improved access by the residents to attendings
- Increased educational participation by the community teaching attending as well as the hospitalists
- Better continuity of care for children with multiple admissions
- Improved communication both within the hospital and with outside referring docs
Members of the group have clinical interests and expertise including:
- Infectious disease
- Adolescent medicine
- General pediatrics
- Newborn medicine
- Education
- Public health
The hospitalist group is working toward conducting clinical research studies and outcome research relevant to MGHfC’s inpatient population. Hospitalists serve on many committees within the hospital including pediatric education and residency training, family centered care, and the medical home initiative. The group meets monthly to review clinical topics, interesting patients, and systems issues within the ward service.
The hospitalist group stands ready to help referring physicians as their patients transition into and back out of the hospital. Hospitalists’ intimate knowledge of consulting staff, nurses, and residents helps families receive better coordinated and more consistent care during the challenging time of their child’s illness. Physicians interested in referring or admitting patients can reach the pediatric hospitalist on call twenty-four hours a day via the page operator (pager 21900 all the time).
