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The growth of hospital medicine has exploded during the past decade (JW Hosp Med Mar 11 2009), in part because hospitalist care is associated with shorter lengths of stay (LOS) and lower hospital costs. However, some experts have voiced concerns that the hospitalist framework can fractionate patients' overall care and can lead to higher downstream costs. Discontinuity between hospitalists and primary care providers (PCPs) might cause miscommunication, more emergency department (ED) visits, and more hospital readmissions.
In a study funded by the National Institute on Aging and the National Cancer Institute, researchers reviewed more than 58,000 Medicare admissions (all with identified PCPs) that occurred from 2001 to 2006 at 454 U.S. hospita…