Inpatient Services
“The Department of Internal Medicine is now responsible for fifty-four percent of inpatient admissions at North Carolina Baptist Hospital . This year we have made significant advances in our clinical enterprise. The hospitalist program within the Section of General Internal Medicine has grown | Inpatient Physicians
Patience Agborbesong, M.D. Fernando Ariza, M.D. Daniel Beekman, M.D. Maria Eapen, M.D. Sean Ervin, M.D. Bhaskara Gadi, M.D. Joel Hartman, M.D. Chris Hatzis, M.D. Shridhar Iyer, M.D. Geoffrey Jao, M.D. Vinodh Jeevanantham, M.D. Suneetha Kalathoor, M.D. Sarba Kundu, M.D. Shomeet Patel, M.D. Sergiu Stefanescu, M.D. Raja Vadlamudi, M.D. | substantively and its success is an example of partnership with the hospital. We also opened a Palliative Care Unit” — Thomas D. DuBose, Jr., MD, Tinsley R. Harrison Professor and Chair of Internal Medicine, Professor of Physiology and Pharmacology | |
Physicians specializing in General Internal Medicine care for “the whole patient” instead of focusing on a single organ or disease state. Many times that equates to providing primary care and screenings. At other times, they manage a patient’s chronic or ongoing disease. This includes a referral to Palliative Care when the patient could benefit from the comfort provided by that department. The term hospitalist was introduced by Robert Wachter, M.D., in a 1996 article for the New England Journal of Medicine. "Before hospitalists existed, the [hospitalized] patient was managed by a roving band of specialists, focusing like a laser on a particular part of his or her body," says Wachter. There was a problem: No single individual had "ownership" of the patient. This meant that specialists sometimes worked without reference to the larger picture. Since hospitalists care for the patient so closely, they can identify when treatment coordination runs smoothly and when it breaks down. Part of a hospitalist’s role is to work with his team to improve patient care. |