military hospitalists

[Dr. Wexler]

Just out of curiousity, are there any hospitalists in the military, or are hospitals covered by a group of physicians who do both inpatient and outpatient work?

Is the work of a primary care phsyicians siginficantly different if he is assigned to a base with no hospital? (e.g. would he not have on-call responsibilities that he would normally have if there were inpatients he had to worry about?)

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[backrow]

I don't know how common they are but when I did peds at Madigan there was a hospitalist there.

I have no clue on your second question. sorry

 

[USAFGMODOC]

Oh,
Believe you me, primary care docs still pull call at clinics. You are on call usually on a week long basis every 3-4 weeks. You take calls for Tricare prime/ urgent care type issues, and basically as a PHYSICIAN your triage to either send them to ER, Urgent care or tell them to call in AM for appt. Rarely would you have to come in to see a patient, it is all over the phone. Then next day, you do have to place a "referral" so the patient doesn't get billed and Tricare understands a physician did at least talk to them and determine they need to be seen. But, as any on call position, you do get called for some ridiculous stuff that you would think a triage nurse could handle-- although for some reason they don't pull any call. The Air Force has essentially stopped using Triage for some reason, except maybe to dole out acute/same day visits during duty hours. Both the PA's and NP's also pull this type of call.

Also, usually most places have some bogus weekend (saturday) clinic to see acutes or possibly (fast track like clinic). Nothing difficult, usually only get it every 1-2 months or so, but again they do use you.