A hospitalist is a physician who specializes in caring for hospitalized patients. If you are admitted to a hospital or medical center, a hospitalist is part of your inpatient care team along with a nurse and a case manager. Depending on your needs, your team may also include a social worker, therapist, nutritionist and other specialty physicians.
We are in in 18 community hospitals
UCLA Health has hospitalists in 18 locations throughout the greater Los Angeles region as well as several skilled nursing facilities. If you are a UCLA Health patient and are hospitalized at one of these locations, our team can access your medical records, either directly through that hospital's system or remotely via a mobile connection. This access is important because it means that your inpatient physician can review your medical history, including previous hospitalizations and recent imaging studies and lab tests, before they meet with you. This takes the pressure off of the patient to remember their full medical history. It also means that unnecessary tests are less likely to be performed.
We provide comprehensive and coordinated care
As a hospitalist cares for you in the hospital, he or she also coordinates your inpatient care with your outpatient primary care physician and other specialists. Your hospitalist physician will notify your primary care physician about your hospital admission, and will enlist the help of other UCLA Health specialists, including cardiologists, nephrologists or pulmonologists, when necessary.
We help provide a smooth transition home
Finally, a hospitalist will request the necessary primary care or specialty appointments prior to your discharge, and work with a navigator to get those scheduled before you leave the hospital. In some settings, the navigator will relay this appointment information at the bedside prior to discharge, while in others, a member of the hospitalist team’s administrative staff will call you with those appointment details.
