GI hospitalist model helps improve procedural volume
Implementing a GI hospitalist model helped increase overall endoscopy volume at a large academic center, according to research presented at the American College of Gastroenterology Virtual Annual Scientific Meeting.
In her presentation, Michelle L. Hughes, MD, from Yale School of Medicine, said that hospitalists, or inpatient specialists, are not a new concept, but it is unclear what their role is regarding productivity within center’s endoscopy program.
“Specialties across medicine and surgery have shown increases in a variety of metrics,” she said. “Unfortunately, there has been little formally reported to date on the impact of the GI hospitalist on these metrics.”
For the study, investigators introduced a two-attending GI hospitalist model at a large academic center, in which the GI hospitalists did not perform outpatient procedures. They matched a pre-intervention period (Sept. 1, 2018-March 1, 2019) to a post-intervention period (Sept. 1, 2019-March 1, 2020) with a 2-month run-in time to allow to a transition to the new model. They compared inpatient and outpatient procedural volume at the center’s four endoscopy units.
Other than the addition of the GI hospitalists, the number of endoscopy providers did not change pre- to post-intervention periods. However, the total endoscopic procedures increased by 1,077 (20%; P < .001). Researchers observed a similar increase between both inpatient (22%; P < .001) and outpatient procedures (19%; P = .02).
“Once the hospitalists were introduced, those outpatient-focused providers, who were being pulled in every direction during the old model, could now stay fully dedicated to making their outpatient practice successful,” Hughes said. “The GI hospitalists took over the inpatient realm and began to share responsibility of inpatient coverage.”
Hughes said further research is needed to better understand the impact of the hospitalist model on quality of care, practice revenue and physician quality of life measures.
Collapse
Shung D, et al. Abstract S0521. Presented at: The American College of Gastroenterology Annual Scientific Meeting (Virtual). Oct. 26-28, 2020.
Read more about