News Release

UPMC NORTHWEST TO LAUNCH HOSPITALIST PROGRAM JAN. 1
Initiative will enhance inpatient care, let doctors focus on office practices

Dec. 27, 2005 — UPMC Northwest is launching a new program that will enhance inpatient care while allowing participating doctors to focus more on the outpatients they see in their office practices.

The program includes the addition of two physicians known as hospitalists (inpatient care specialists) to the UPMC Northwest medical staff effective Sunday, Jan. 1. John Graham, MD, is a member of the hospital’s active medical staff and will practice full-time as medical director of UPMC Northwest’s hospitalist program, which is the first among area hospitals. Richard Wacksman, MD, will practice full-time on a temporary basis while UPMC Northwest recruits additional hospitalists.

Both doctors are members of a practice known as Community Hospitalists.

The opening of UPMC Northwest’s hospitalist program culminates an extensive planning process that began more than a year ago. The hospital and its medical staff began exploring the hospitalist approach as a way to enhance both inpatient care and participating physicians’ office practices.

Hospitalists – who represent the nation’s fastest-growing branch of medicine – specialize in caring for patients in the hospital and usually do not have outpatient practices. Most hospitalists are general internal medicine physicians or family practice physicians. Some hospitalists are specialists in pulmonary/critical care medicine, cardiology, or other subspecialties.

Dr. Graham is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and has practiced seven years as a hospitalist in Pennsylvania and Michigan, including two years at Saint Vincent Health Center in Erie. He is board certified in internal medicine.

Dr. Wacksman has a degree in medicine from American University of the Caribbean, and has been a hospitalist the past three years in Dallas, TX. Earlier the board certified internist/pediatrician practiced 12 years in MeritCare Health System’s emergency and critical care departments in Fargo, ND.

Six primary care physicians who are members of the UPMC Northwest medical staff – internists Allison Dilks, MD, and Stuart Shapiro, MD (Venango Internal Medicine-UPMC), Todd Bush, MD, and David McCandless, MD (Franklin Medical Group), Joseph Gent, MD (Emlenton Family Practice-UPMC), and David Andres, DO (Andres Internal Medicine Associates) – voluntarily will refer their inpatient admissions to Dr. Graham and Dr. Wacksman beginning New Year’s Day. Other primary care doctors who are UPMC Northwest staff physicians will continue to provide care for their hospitalized patients, and these doctors and their patients will not be affected by the hospitalist program.

Dr. Graham and Dr. Wacksman will be responsible for managing inpatient care for patients whose doctors make referrals to the hospitalist program. Working in close cooperation with the six referring doctors, the two new inpatient care specialists will provide all bedside care, order tests and treatments, consult with specialists, and otherwise meet patients’ needs throughout their hospitalization. When their inpatient stay ends, patients will resume receiving care from their primary care physician.

Dr. Graham says hospitalists are a way to provide more effective, hands-on inpatient care – because hospitalists practice exclusively within the hospital they’re more accessible to the inpatients they care for – while helping primary care physicians give more time and attention to their office practices.

“Having a physician available on site throughout your hospital stay is preferable in many cases to seeing your doctor only once a day when he or she makes rounds,” Dr. Graham says. “A hospitalist may see you as many times a day as necessary. There are fewer inpatient admissions now but hospitalized patients generally are more acutely ill than they used to be, so the extra attention from a doctor who’s always in the hospital can be very helpful. If you need a different course of treatment, a hospitalist is right here and promptly can change your care. If you or your family need to speak with the hospitalist, we’re readily available.”

Receiving care from a hospitalist is “much like obtaining care from any other specialist,” according to UPMC Northwest president Neil Todhunter. “When your doctor refers you to a cardiologist, for example, he or she is entrusting your care to a specialist who is better able to evaluate and treat cardiac conditions than he or she is. It’s the same thing with hospitalists: when your physician makes a referral to them, it’s because their expertise is in providing inpatient hospital care, and they can meet inpatients’ needs more effectively.”

Dr. McCandless and Dr. Bush say the physicians who make referrals to Dr. Graham and Dr. Wacksman will continue to be advocates for their patients, and will communicate actively with the hospitalists whenever an inpatient admission is necessary. “If you need hospital care, we’ll talk with Dr. Graham or Dr. Wacksman, inform them about your condition, and send your medical records so they have as much information about you as possible,” Dr. Bush says.

“We will be in contact with the hospitalist while you’re in the hospital, then when you’re discharged your hospital records will be provided to us for your follow-up care,” Dr. McCandless adds. “We still will be actively involved in your health care.”

Without having to care for hospital inpatients, the six referring doctors will be able to give more attention to their office practices and the sizable volume of outpatients they see, according to Dr. Shapiro and Dr. Dilks. “Focusing more on outpatients certainly will benefit these patients and our practices,” Dr. Dilks says. “When we devote all of our time to see patients only in our offices, we essentially specialize in outpatient care, we’re more available to our outpatients, and better able to meet their needs,” Dr. Shapiro says.

Increased availability for outpatient appointments, reduced waiting times for appointments, and spending more time with patients during office visits are among the benefits that outpatients will experience, according to Dr. Andres.

Hospitalist programs often produce shorter hospital stays, improve treatment results, and increase patient satisfaction, Dr. Gent says. Hospitalists’ expertise in inpatient medicine also can help improve patient safety, lower costs, reduce readmissions, and lower the number of transfers to other hospitals.

“The hospitalist concept works well, and we’re looking forward to using it to benefit our patients,” says Melinda Remley, UPMC Northwest’s vice president of patient management services.