What is General Medicine?
Many physicians who provide medical services to post-acute care facilities do so in addition to their work in their own practices and making hospital rounds. It’s because of this that it becomes understandable that their practices often take priority. It’s also understandable if returning calls to the facility might be put off until the end of a long day, or quick facility visits get squeezed into a busy week – or skipped. 
A post-hospitalist is a practitioner who specializes in the care of patients that have been transitioned from the hospital to a post-acute care facility. They care only for patients in post-acute care settings. Primary care physicians at traditional post-acute facilities typically care for as many as 1,000 patients. Post-hospitalists, on the other hand, care for 150 to 200 patients.
General Medicine is a leader in post-hospitalist medicine. It was more than 30 years ago when Dr. Thomas Prose had a vision to provide specialized care to patients in post-acute care facilities, whether long term or in transition between hospital and home.
Since then, General Medicine, The Post-Hospitalist Company, has gained the respect of the post-acute care industry and has contracted with 9 of the nation’s top 10 Managed Care Organizations.
Post-acute care patients and facility staff don’t have to wait for busy practitioners to find time to respond to their requests for patient care because General Medicine’s Post-Hospitalists are on call 24/7.
Because they spend more time in the post-acute care facilities, the practitioners develop strong relationships with both patients and staff, which leads to improved patient care and fewer potentially avoidable hospital readmissions — an issue the Affordable Care Act tries to minimize through Medicare reimbursement penalties.
Dual-eligible beneficiaries have a national average readmission rate of 23.8%, according to CMS. General Medicine, The Post-Hospitalist Company, works with facilities to reduce these rates by as much as 56%. The typical readmitted-patient’s hospital care costs 33% more than the average hospital patient’s care; in 2010, 30-day hospital readmissions of post-acute care patients added up to a $4.3 billion bill to Medicare.
More importantly, they put patients through unnecessary physical and emotional trauma and increased risk for things like bed sores, hospital-acquired infections and other deconditioning associated with transitions of post-acute patients.
Contact General Medicine, The Post-Hospitalist Company and start improving care for your post-acute care patients and minimize hospital readmission rates today.
- How Post-Hospitalists Decrease Health Care Spending - 06-24-2015
- Top Reasons for Hospital Readmissions from SNFs - 06-03-2015
- The Real Cost of Hospital Readmission Rates - 05-20-2015