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Comanagement of adult surgical patients by internists or hospitalists has risen during the past 2 decades. However, whether such involvement, with or without a multidisciplinary team (MDT), improves outcomes is unclear. To address this, researchers conducted a systematic review that included 14 studies (≈36,000 patients, with 13,000 patients receiving comanagement interventions). One study was randomized; the others were observational.
Internal medicine (IM) physician comanagement alone did not improve outcomes, but IM physicians' participation as part of an MDT (i.e., involving nursing, physical therapy, social work, and occupational therapy) lowered length of stay by 2 days and prevented some inpatient mortality. Thirty-day readmissions we…