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An Employer's Perspective on Hospitalists as a Source of Improved Health Care Value
- Arnold Milstein, MD, MPH
- From Pacific Business Group on Health, William M. Mercer, Inc., and the University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California. Note: This article is one of a series of articles comprising an Annals of Internal Medicine supplement entitled “ The Hospitalist Movement in the United States.” To see a complete list of the articles included in this supplement, please view its Table of Contents.
Abstract
The probable perspective of large employers toward the phenomenon of hospitalists can be derived by examining the four essential elements of health care value to employers. Current hospital care in the United States is thought to offer substantial opportunities for improvement, and the impact of hospitalist programs on an employer's sense of health care value is predicted to be favorable. This prediction, however, should be validated through outcomes research before it is widely propagated. If innovations as promising as hospitalist programs are to occur in ambulatory care, employers and other health care purchasers must be proactive in identifying and rewarding them.
- Hospitalists
- Quality of health care
- Employer health costs
- Outcome and process assessment (health care)
- Health services research
Article and Author Information
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Requests for Reprints: Arnold Milstein, MD, MPH, 2750 Broadway, San Francisco, CA 94115.
- Copyright ©2004 by the American College of Physicians
