Category:Hospitalist

Hospital medicine in the United States is the discipline concerned with the general medical care of hospitalized patients. Physicians, physician assistants, and nurse practitioners whose primary professional focus is hospital medicine are called hospitalists; this type of medical practice has extended beyond the US into Canada. The term "hospitalist" was first used by Dr. Robert Wachter in a 1996 New England Journal of Medicine article. Hospitalist activities may include patient care, teaching, research, and leadership related to hospital care. Hospital medicine, like emergency medicine, is a specialty organized around a site of care (the hospital), rather than an organ (like cardiology), a disease (like oncology), or a patient’s age (like pediatrics).