Family Practice Medicine Hospitalist

Hospital medicine is one of the newest and fastest growing specialties in the realm of primary care medicine. Hospitalists are usually physicians trained in internal medicine, family practice, and pediatrics who have a specific interest in taking care of inpatients in the hospital setting. These practitioners often have a broad range of responsibilities, including but not limited to, the clinical care of hospitalized patients, procedures related to the care of inpatients, teaching of residents and medical students, administration and even research.

Because of the growing need for hospitalists, many internal medicine and family practice training centers are beginning to offer both hospitalist tracks within residency programs and fellowship opportunities in this new specialty. The goal of these programs is to provide interested primary care trained physicians with additional emphasis in the areas of general hospital medicine as well as various internal medicine subspecialties so that such providers may be better able to focus on a career in inpatient hospital medicine.

St. Joseph's Medical Center is aware of this growing trend in hospital medicine and is embracing the nationwide need for hospitalists by instituting a hospitalist track within its family practice residency. Residents who choose this track will have the ability to pursue several elective months worth of inpatient adult and pediatric medicine as well as various internal medicine subspecialties in order to broaden their foundation in hospital medicine. These residents will train with the family practice teaching service, the hospitalist service, and the pediatric inpatient service in order to provide a strong basis from which to pursue fellowships or career opportunities in hospital medicine upon graduation from the three year program. In contrast to many internal medicine hospitalist programs, residents who graduate from St. Joseph's hospitalist track will be prepared to pursue a career in the exciting and challenging specialty of hospital medicine while maintaining a traditional family practice knowledge base in general pediatrics, obstetrics, and gynecology.