KVCH Hospitalist Program
What is a hospitalist?
A hospitalist is a specially trained physician
based in a hospital setting. Hospitalists provide personalized and immediate
care to hospitalized patients and communicate
directly to the patient’s primary care physician or specialist. Kittitas
Valley Community Hospital (KVCH) introduced a partial hospitalist program in
2006 and eventually developed a full-coverage hospitalist program by the end of
2008. The service was created as a means to reduce patient lengths of stay,
decrease treatment costs and most importantly, to enhance clinical outcomes and
overall patient satisfaction.
“The majority of hospitals employ hospitalists because the program
allows for a better utilization of resources, of time, of communication skills
and quality of care," said
‘Hospitalist’ may be a new term for many people; however, it is the
fastest growing medical specialty in the country, according to the nonprofit
Society of Hospital Medicine, a professional society for hospitalists.
“I was unaware of what a hospitalist does
until recently when I met Dr. Waltner, who treated me at KVCH for several
days,” said Jimmy Johnson, a former patient at KVCH. “I learned quickly
that Dr. Waltner was interested in learning my case history and defining a
treatment for me.”
Always on site
At first, Johnson said that she was
surprised to learn that she would not be seeing her primary physician during
her hospital stay, but she said that she felt comforted to learn that the
attending physician would be at the hospital to care for her around-the-clock.
Johnson said, “It was a relief to me to
know that a competent doctor was assigned to the hospital, to not only lighten
the heavy load of my personal doctor, but to check on me and monitor my
condition as his primary job.” He (Dr. Waltner) was patient and personable and
interacted with my primary physician.”
Smooth
transition of care
Although primary care physicians do not treat patients while they are in
the hospital, they remain in contact with the hospitalist from the time the
patient is admitted into the hospital until discharge. The hospitalist provides
the primary care physician with frequent updates regarding the patient’s
diagnosis, condition, test results and treatment plan.
Once patients are discharged from the
hospital, the hospitalist contacts the physician to provide a detailed report
and discharge summary for the physician’s records. The primary care physician then
assumes responsibility for patient care after discharge.
“I appreciate the efforts of KVCH to staff
the hospital with competent and caring hospitalists who are invaluable to
patients and primary care doctors,” Johnson said.
KVCH employs two full-time hospitalists who specialize in internal
medicine: William Waltner, MD, Joseph Zitterman, MD. KVCH also staffs the
hospitalist program with physicians with special training in hospital-based
medicine: Mark Larson, MD and John Merrill-Steskal, MD and
